The 40th Annual Meeting of the IWC
in Auckland, New Zealand
1988

IWC/40/23

SMALL-TYPE COASTAL
WHALING IN JAPAN
Report of an International Workshop
1988

This report was issued as a separate, joint publication of the Japan Social Sciences
Association of Canada, the Fund to Promote International Educational Exchange, and the
Boreal Institute for Northern Studies and later endorsed by the Japanese government for
presentation to the IWC. Copies are available from the Canadian Circumpolar Institute at
the Univeristy of Alberta, Edmonton (formerly the Boreal Institute for Northern Studies).

The 41st Annual Meeting of the IWC
in San Diego, California, USA
1989

IWC/41/21

REPORT TO THE WORKING GROUP ON SOCIO-ECONOMICIMPLICATIONS OF A ZERO CATCH LIMITThe Government of Japan
1989

CONTENTS

catch limit for minke whale reduced the production of thiscoastal fishery by almost half.
The result of these restrictions on whaling has caused
a number of direct and indirect impacts of a social,economic, cultural, and health-related nature which
adversely affects whalers and their families, whale-related
small businesses and other institutions in the whaling
towns.
At the dissolution of the last remaining pelagic andlarge-type coastal whaling companies in 1987, a total of
789 full-time and 42 part-time employees lost their jobs.
Seventy-three percent of the 507 former pelagic
whalers have found re-employment in a new company thatprovides crews and vessels for fishery inspection andresearch purposes. However, these new positions provide
salaries about 15 percent less than formerly paid towhalers, and the work is seasonal and often short-term.
Those former commercial whalers who have not foundemployment are entitled to up to 12 months government
unemployment benefits, as well as receiving severance
pay from the companies at the time their employment was
terminated. The 42 part-time employees received nocompany or government benefits.
After one year following termination of theiremployment only 28 percent of former large-type coastal
whalers had found permanent jobs; a further 18 percent
had obtained temporary or part-time employment. All
former whalers with jobs now receive less wages than theyreceived as whalers, and in most cases, none of theadditional company benefits they received as whalers.
Small-type coastal whaling employed 75 full-time and38 part-time seasonal workers in 1987, the last year of
this stable fishery, before the zero-catch limit was imposedon the minke whale quota, at which time small-typewhalers lost their jobs in the summer 1988.
Some small-type whaling operations rehired some of
their workers for the late summer/fall Baird’s beaked andpilot whale fishery in 1988; however the 50 percent ofworkers rehired received salaries reduced by as much as 50
percent. In addition, the supplemental pay and bonuses,
including shares of whale meat, were considerably reduced
in 1988 for those whalers otherwise fortunate enough to be
rehired.
Small-type coastal whalers in most cases are ineligible
for government unemployment benefits, and due to thesmall-business nature of the small-type whaling
operations, did not receive large dismissal allowances.
Those whalers not re-employed in the fashion

Executive Summary ...................................................... 17
List of Tables ................................................................. 20
Appendices .................................................................... 20
Introduction ................................................................... 20
Acknowledgements ....................................................... 21
Japanese Whaling in 1988 ............................................. 21
Impact on Whalers ......................................................... 22
Loss of Employment and Income ........................... 22
Pelagic whalers ........................................................ 22
Large-type coastal whalers ...................................... 22
Small-type coastal whalers ...................................... 23
One whaler’s story .................................................. 24
Can whalers find employment in local fisheries? ... 25
Common barriers to whalers’ re-employment ........ 25
Psychological and health related impacts ............... 26
The Impact on Whalers’ Families ................................. 27
Financial stress ........................................................ 27
Disrupted patterns of family life ............................. 28
Effects on children of whaling families .................. 28
Interpersonal stress and conflict .............................. 29
Concern about family traditions disrupted
by the whaling ban ............................................ 29
The effects of the whaling ban on traditional
gift-giving ceremonies ...................................... 31
Impact on Whaling towns .............................................. 32
Whale meat processors ............................................ 32
Implications of the forced changes in Baird’s
beaked whaling on local businesses .................. 33
Losses associated with closing on-shore
whaling stations ................................................ 34
The nature of Japanese small business enterprises .......... 35
The Fisheries Cooperative Associations ................. 36
Impacts Occurring Outside of the Whaling Towns ....... 37
Health related concerns ........................................... 37
Concerns about foreign attacks on Japanese culture ....... 38
Discussion and Conclusion ........................................... 38
Tables ............................................................................ 41
Appendicies ................................................................... 53
Bibliography .................................................................. 69

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Japanese pelagic and large-type coastal whalingsuspended operations in 1987 and the last of thecommercial whaling operations closed down at the endof 1987.
Small-type whaling continued to operate as a stablefishery until the 1988 season, when an IWC-imposed zero17

IWC/41/21

described above, have sought employment in a variety of
low-paying occupations, often in temporary, part-time orseasonal work. Some have left their home communities,
with or without their families, moving to larger centers in
the hope of finding better job prospects. All are having torely on savings at the present time, which given their ages,
involve the peak years of family expenses when theirchildren are in or entering high schools or universities.
The average age of former whalers is the late forties,
though a large proportion are in their fifties. Due to theirfinancial obligations, many wives of former whalers have
had to take low paying, part-time jobs and work for longhours. This situation causes various profound interpersonaland emotional stresses in these families, due to the sudden
reversal of roles in a society having rigid traditional norms
concerning gender-related household divisions of labor.
There are serious barriers to re-employment of former
whalers, due to the highly specialized nature of their work,
their lack of networks outside of the whaling profession,
the over-capacity of Japanese fishing and merchant marine
industries, and the particularities of Japanese employment
and fishery practices.
A number of stress-related health problems arereported among former whalers who are unable to findsuitable employment. Some occupational-health problems
are also reported among the middle-aged former whalers
now undertaking unfamiliar and physically demanding
new jobs.
The emotional stress caused in families of unemployedwhalers affects husband-wife and parent-childrelationships. Children worry about their parents’ changed
financial circumstances at a crucial time in their schoolingwhen their attention and concern need to be fully directedto the all-important high-school and university entrance
examinations.
Officials in some whaling communities report the
recent appearance of hitherto unknown anti-social trends
among some young people and in families of unemployedwhalers. Whaling towns historically have been entirely
free of such tendencies due to the high status and prestige
enjoyed by whalers in Japanese society and history.
Whale meat remains the favorite food of all age groups
in the whaling towns and districts; it is both a preferred
everyday food, and a required ingredient in special dishes
served on various religious or ceremonial occasions.
Whale meat is especially important in gift-exchange
ceremonies which have an important place in the social
life of whaling towns. The interruption in supplies of whale
meat has seriously compromised these ceremonial
occasions with a corresponding loss of community
solidarity at a time when massive economic dislocations
caused by the whaling ban seriously threaten the continued
viability of these small remote communities.
Economic problems in the whaling towns are causedby job and wage losses to whalers, flensers, meat

processors and distributors, retailers and the various
businesses depending upon the local circulation ofrevenues generated from whale-related occupations.
Whale-meat processors are affected by the shortagein supplies of whale meat, the non-availability of certain
products with cessation of large-type whaling and theincreasing price of other whale products as the supply
diminishes. This has resulted in loss of employment inmeat-processing firms, reduced wages to employees, large
and risky financial investment in new equipment in
attempts to diversify, and uncertainty in regard to futurebusiness success.
The meat processors in some locations have forgenerations processed locally valued specialty products.
The interruption in supplies now threatens the continued
existence of these multi-generational small familybusinesses and the small-scale distributors (peddlars) who
have supplied rural populations with the traditional staple
whale-meat products at low cost.
These local specialty foods are also important for
tourism development in these remote towns which mustcompete for tourism revenues with towns better endowedwith tourist facilities and attractions.
Closing of shore-based stations has reduced therevenues to local boarding establishments and retail stores
who benefitted from the ten-month whaling and processing
season. Losses of cash income and free supplies of whale
meat distributed locally affect the income of theseboarding establishments and their ability to provide thewhale-meat dishes tourists expect to enjoy when visitingthese traditional whaling communities. Tourists reportconcern should the whale-meat cuisine not be obtainable
on their future visits.
The various business enterprises affected by theinterruption in whale-meat supplies are for the most partsmall family businesses; in one whaling town for example,
three-quarters of the 175 businesses employed two or lessemployees, and less than three percent of businesses
employed more than five employees.
The tradition of family businesses in Japan places astrong moral value on ensuring the business, inherited fromancestors, is nurtured and passed on in sound health tosucceeding generations. This is true for whalers, flensers,
food processors, retailers of traditional products or others
who inherit family businesses. The present threat to thecontinuation of such family occupations is a cause for intenseanxiety, shame and a sense of moral failure on the part offamily-business owners whose businesses are failing due
to the economic consequences of the whaling moratorium.
In the whaling towns, whale production accounts fora significant proportion of the revenues of the local
Fisheries Cooperative Associations (FCAs) to which
belong the several hundred local fishermen as well as thewhale-boat operators. The FCA operates the local fish
market, provides ice and freezer storage for fishermen,

18

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limitand serves as the principal financial institution for its
members.
An end to, or serious reduction in, whaling has
significantly affected the economic viability of some of
the FCAs. In one case, after losing most of its operating
revenues with the end of large-type coastal whaling, an
FCA has been forced to liquidate all its remaining assets
in order to continue operation, and in addition has assumed
a large burden of debt.
The loss of whale meat in the diet, both in whaling
towns and throughout Japan, caused concern in two
particular additional regards. The first concerns a healthrelated impact, and the second is an impact of a culturaland political nature.
With regard to health impacts, whale meat is generally
considered a superior source of animal protein than isagriculturally produced meat. Because whale meat waslargely available free (as gift items) in the whaling towns,
the interruption in supplies now caused people topurchase substitute meats. Due to the financial
problems in these towns the inexpensive, fatty, meats
are increasingly being purchased, which causes
concern to health officials as obesity, high bloodpressure and elevated cholesterol levels begin toappear among elderly residents.
A recent rise in infantile food-allergy problems has
become apparent in Japanese society. Treatment consistsof a rotational diet composed of non-allergenic protein
sources. Whale meat is the most hypo-allergenic sourceof protein so far tested and has high acceptibility comparedto the expensive, imported or seasonally unavailable
alternative protein sources. At the present time about

PLACE NAMES MENTIONED IN THE TEXT

Sea of Okhotsk
Shiretoko
Peninsula
Monbetsu
Abashiri

HOKKAIDO Shibetsu
SapporoMuroran
Hakodate

Sea of Japan
Ishinomaki
Sendai

Kugunari
Ayukawa
Oshika Town

MIYAGI
PREFECTURE

HONSHUTokyo
Yokohama
Osaka
Fukuoka

Wada
Chikura

SHIKOKU

Nagasaki

KYUSHU
WAKAYAMAPREFECTURE

Shingu
Taiji

Pacific Ocean

19

KushiroIWC/41/21

fifteen hundred families throughout Japan are involved inthis new treatment programme, and numbers are
anticipated to rise as its success becomes more widely
known. The limited supplies and the present rising cost ofwhale meat compromise the effectiveness and spread of
this paediatric health programme.
The continuing misrepresentation of Japanese food
habits, traditions, religious beliefs and world view inwestern ‘environmentalist’ campaigns is generating
considerable anti-American/anti-western sentimentamong Japanese intellectuals and others in society,including school children, who are resentful of western
prejudice.

Table 21: Revenues of Wada Town Fishery Cooperative,
1984-86.
Table 22: Revenues from whaling contributed to Wada
Town Fishery Co-operative.
Table 23: Declining contribution by whalers to Taiji town
tax revenues and increasing town debt, 19621986.
Table 24: Supermarket prices for meat and fish, Taiji,
February 1989.

APPENDICESIThe Distribution of Whale Meat By-products from1988 Antarctic Research Whaling
II Wages, Supplemental Pay and Bonus System Paid
by Small-type Whale-boat Operations, Taiji
III Three Reports
Observations on Taiji Attitudes and Diet
Reaction to the Whaling Moratorium
On the Claim that Whale Meat is only Served andEaten in Expensive Restaurants
IV Fund Raising for Whaling Research
V Executive Summary: Socio-economic Implicationsof a Zero-catch Limit on Distribution Channels andRelated Activities in Hokkaido and Miyagi
Prefectures, JapanIV A Petition for Whale Meat Allocation, and Parents’Groups Petitioning for Supply of Antarctic Minke
Whale
VII Elementary School Children at Nara Prefecture:
Class Debate on Whaling
VIII Essays Written by Taiji Students

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Employment data, Nippon Kyôdô Hogei, 19761987
Table 2: Economic situation of Nihon Hogei (large-typewhaling company) 1976-1987.
Table 3: Employment data, Nihon Hogei, 1976-1987.
Table 4: Economic situation of Nittô Hogei, (large-typewhaling company) 1976-1987.
Table 5: Employment data, Nittô Hogei, 1976-1988.
Table 6: Small-type coastal whaling production statistics,
1982-1988.
Table 7: Employment status of former large-type whalers,
1988.
Table 8: Employment status of former large-type whalers,
1988.
Table 9: Changes in small-type coastal whaling
employment, 1986-1989.
Table 10: Employment status of small-type whalers, 1988.
Table 11: Age composition of small-type coastal Whalers’
workforce, April 1986.
Table 12: Employment status of small-type whalers,
Abashiri, December 1988.
Table 13: Redemption of discount coupons obtained from
Shingu merchants by Taiji customers, 1963-72
and 1981-88.
Table 14: Meat prices, Taiji fish market and retail stores,
1985-1989.
Table 15: Monthly gross sales of retail fishmonger,
Ayukawa, before and after zero-catch quota forminke whale.
Table 16: Sizes of retail and wholesale enterprises in Oshika
Town, 1988.
Table 17: Commissions earned on sale of whale products
and other fishery products, Oshika-cho Maritime
Wholesale Market, 1984-87.
Table 18: Gross fishery sales at Oshika-cho Maritime
Wholesale market, 1984-87.
Table 19: Average wholesale price of whale meat at
Oshika-cho Maritime Wholesale Market, 197887.
Table 20: Revenues from ice sales, Oshika Fishery
Cooperative Association, 1984-87.

INTRODUCTION
This report is submitted by the Government of Japan to
the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a
Zero Catch Limit. In preparing this report, the Governmentof Japan has followed the guidelines recommended by theWorking Group at the 38th Annual Meeting of theInternational Whaling Commission (IWC/38/15).
However, some of the recommended information of astrictly economic nature is not included in the present report.
The data expressly addressed in this report includes:
employment data prior to and following the introductionof the zero-catch limits, alternative employment options
available to former whalers, the impacts of the zero-catch
limits on the Whalers’ families and those communities
which formerly derived a large proportion of their revenues
from whaling activities.
IWC/38/15 invites Contracting Governments to include
additional information describing the current and recent
circumstances of their whaling operations. This reportconsequently includes data that would not likely be foundin a report submitted by a western whaling nation, due tothe fact that Japanese whaling and indeed Japanese society,though technologically sharing many characteristics withthe west, is socially and culturally quite distinct. It is20

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
necessary for purposes of understanding to make explicit
these fundamental and profound distinctions in social andbusiness culture, religious beliefs and food culture that havebeen adversely affected by the zero-catch limits.
In order to prepare this report, field research was
conducted in the four whaling towns of Abashiri, Ayukawa,
Taiji and Wada intermittently during the period October
1988 to mid-February 1989; in addition, records were
examined and interviews conducted in Tokyo and Sapporo.
Research was mostly based upon interviews with whalers
and former whalers, members of their families, town
officials and business people, health professionals, and otherinformed local residents. More than two hundred and fiftyinterviews were carried out by the researchers, who are
identified in the Acknowledgements together with thoseother contributors to this report.
Two reports prepared from this research effort, one byProfessor Theodore Bestor (Columbia University, USA)and the other by Professor Lenore Manderson (Universityof Queensland, Australia) and Professor Helen Hardacre(Princeton University, USA) are available separately. The
Government of Japan wishes to thank the researchers who
made their findings available for the purposes of this report.

facilities were destroyed. Whaling boats were scrapped, andWhalers’ employment was terminated (Tables 2-5). For the
first time in the history of Japanese whaling, no large
cetaceans were caught by Japanese whalers in Japan’s
coastal waters.
Small-type coastal whaling
In 1988 a zero-catch quota was imposed by the IWC
on minke whaling in Japan’s coastal waters. No minke
whales were caught by Japanese whalers in the year 1988,
which meant a reduction of 310 whales compared with theprevious year’s harvest for the small coastal-whaling boats,or a reduction in gross tonnage of about 46 percent overboth the 1987 harvest and the average for the preceding six
years (Table 6).
However, a national catch quota of 40 Baird’s beaked
whales was allotted by the Government of Japan as was thecase in previous years. Japanese small-type whalersconsidered this allotment to be their common resources andshared the quota equally among the nine small-type whalingboats owned by eight companies.
Actual hunting of the Baird’s beaked whales in 1988
was carried out differently than in the previous year. In
1987 two boats from Abashiri, two boats from Wada andone boat from Taiji hunted Baird’s beaked whales in two
hunting grounds (off Abashiri and off Wada). However, in1988 one boat from Abashiri, two from Ayukawa, one from
Wada, and one from Taiji hunted beaked whales in three
separate whaling grounds off Abashiri, Ayukawa and Wada.
The whales were landed at three ports, Abashiri, Ayukawa
and Wada, and flensed at the government-approved landing
stations where government-appointed officials inspected thecarcasses.
Later, the Government of Japan raised the quota for
Baird’s beaked whales by 20 in order to give emergency
relief to the troubled small-type whalers. This extra
allotment was shared equally among the whalers. It was
explicitly stated that this catch increase was a one-time
special provision for 1988 based primarily on humaneconsiderations, and was by no means to be taken as aprecedent. Thus, a total of 57 Baird’s beaked whales werecaught in 1988.
The national quota for the pilot whales is 50 whales in
the northern waters of Japan, and this was unchanged in
1988. However, the government approved a carry-over of
50 whales from the previous year when the whalers did nothunt pilot whales at all. Thus, a total of 98 pilot whales1
were caught, all in the waters off Ayukawa. All the whales
were landed in Ayukawa, and flensed at the governmentdesignated stations in the presence of government-appointed
inspectors.
The data presented in Table 6 indicates that the
production of the small-type coastal whale fishery hasremained fairly constant for the years leading up to the 1988
ban on minke, averaging about 980 thousand kg over thepreceding six years. In the 1988 whaling season however
production dropped by almost 50 percent, which constitutes

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Government of Japan acknowledges the assistanceof the following researchers who contributed to this report:
Dr. R. Anderson, Dr. T.C. Bestor, Dr. M. Freeman,Dr. H. Hardacre, Ms. M. Iwasaki, Dr. L.
Manderson, Mr. C.W. Nicol, Ms. K. Ohmagari, and
Dr. J. Takahashi.
Thanks are also expressed to the mayors and town
officials at Ayukawa and Taiji and to the many residents of
the whaling towns mentioned in this report, as well as toofficials of former whaling companies for their helpful cooperation. The following health professionals also provided
data included in this report:
Dr. T. Chiba, Ms. Kanami Hamanaka, Mr. K.
Hashimoto, Dr. M. Matsunobu, and Ms. EmikoTosha.
Special thanks are due to the following for variously
assisting in the preparation of this report:
Mr. H. Kagohashi, Mr. Y. Kikuchi, Mr. and Mrs.
N. Misaki, Dr. F. Nagasaki, Ms. C. Shiratori, Ms.
A. Yamamoto, and Mr. K. Yamamura.

JAPANESE WHALING IN 1988
Pelagic whaling
No commercial whaling took place in the Antarctic or
any other part of the world in 1988; the last remaining
pelagic whaling company was dissolved in November 1987
(Table 1).
Large-type coastal whaling
No sperm whaling and no Bryde’s whaling took placein Japanese waters by any of the former large-type whaling
companies. Whaling stations were shut down, and the shore

21

IWC/41/21

the basis for some of the impacts described in this report,
more especially as they are experienced by small-type
coastal whalers, their families and dependent community
institutions.
Scientific research
A total of 273 minke whales were taken in the Antarctic
as part of a Japanese research program. The International
Convention for the Regulation of Whaling provides for therational utilization of whale by-product from researchwhaling. An account of how this was accomplished isprovided in Appendix I. (See also Manderson and Hardacre
1989: 27-28 for an account of how the distribution of thismeat was accomplished in Ayukawa, December 1988.)

speakers had already expressed their thoughts.
The men ranged in age from 45 to 62 years, with theaverage age about 53. They averaged about 30 years
experience in large-type coastal and pelagic whaling, witha range of 10 to 39 years of whaling experience. In
speaking of the effects of the moratorium upon their lives,
their responses stressed impacts on family, particularly inrespect to providing for their children’s education, andalso their limited employment prospects.
“I get so frustrated, I’m angry... Our family isalmost destroyed... I need a job. I have twochildren; one is in kindergarten now, and one is injunior high school. I have to support them.”(Former harpooner, 33 years experience)“Many whalers have young children. Japaneseparents want to give their children the besteducation possible. Without a job we cannot afford
to do so.”(Former boatswain, 34 years experience)“I have college-age children, so I am concerned
about making a living. My children’s education isimportant to me. But now I am unemployed.”(Former captain, 27 years experience)“I have a child in the last year of university andno idea where the money will come from. I am 55
years old, even with my pension from thegovernment, I cannot make a living.”(Former radio operator, 27 years pelagic whaling experience)“I have two children. I am 50 years old and cannot
find a job. I want a good job, one with a pension
after retirement. But most jobs I can find offer nobenefits! Most men here are over 50 and want a
job with benefits, a good job.”(Former head seaman, 36 years whaling experience)“I was a harpooner and I’m 50 years old, and needto support myself for at least 10-15 years. I can
get a pension but the earliest is at 55. But I want
to work; I have children in junior high school.”(Former harpooner, 34 years experience)“I have no other work experience and can’t findanother job. I am over 50, so it is harder to adjust
and find new work. I get unemployment
compensation from the government, but it isn’t
enough to live on.”(Former boatswain, 39 years whaling experience)“I am 57 years old and can’t find another job. For
whaler engineers to find another job requires
retraining and requalification. So I can’t just get
another job.”(Former second engineer, 10 years experience)

IMPACT ON WHALERS
Loss of employment and income
The IWC-imposed ban on commercial whaling has
affected and is still affecting extensively all componentsof the centuries-old Japanese whaling enterprise. Among
those most severely affected are whalers and their families,
whose livelihoods have completely depended upon
whaling.
As stated elsewhere (Akimichi et al., 1988: 12-16, 18,
83-84), there are three types of historically developed
whaling in contemporary Japan: pelagic, large-type
coastal, and small-type coastal whaling. Each tends to havequite distinct socio-economic characteristics and hence isaffected differently by the whaling moratorium. Therefore
it is necessary to examine the impact of the zero-catch
limit on whalers separately for each of the three systemsof whaling. The whalers also share some common
problems which are described below.
Pelagic whalers
Nippon Kyôdô Hogei Company (NKH hereafter),Japan’s only pelagic whaling company, was dissolved in
November 1987, and the employment of its 507 employees(464 seamen and factory ship workers, and 43 management
and office workers) was terminated; 77 of them took early
retirement, and the others were laid off (Table 1). In April
1988, Nihon Kyôdô Senpaku (NKS), a company whichowns and operates charter vessels, was founded based on
the residual assets of NKH. Accordingly, its headquarters
was moved to a new location. The main service which
NKS provides is to operate government-charteredresearch and inspection vessels, and 369 of NKS’s
laid-off workers were rehired by this new company;
however, rehired workers on average took a pay cutof 15 percent.
Laid-off workers were able to collect unemployment
compensation for several months (to a maximum of 24months for ship crews, depending on the length of theircontinuous employment with the company).
The following observations were made by unemployedpelagic whalers at a meeting held at Taiji’s town hall on 1
February 1989. About 18 local whalers were present.
Twelve spoke at length. Others indicated that previous

Large-type coastal whalers
Three large-type coastal whaling companies, Nihon
Hogei, Nittô Hogei and Sanyo Hogei closed their whaling
divisions in December 1987. Eighty-five out of 95 Nihon

22

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Hogei fulltime employees (see Table 3) and 100 out of
105 Nittô Hogei fulltime employees (see Table 5) lost theirjobs. Twenty Sanyo Hogei full-time employees (17 boatcrew and 3 land personnel) were removed from whalingrelated work. Most personnel who lost their jobs
subsequent to the closing of the whaling operations were
eligible for unemployment compensation for various
periods up to maximum of two years. Forty-two part-time
employees of these companies also lost their jobs but are
ineligible for unemployment benefits.
The unemployment problems experienced byformer workers at two companies will be described
immediately below.
As noted above, Nihon Hogei Company laid-off 85
whalers (three out of this number retired) at the end of
1987. Nearly a year later, 23 (or 27 percent) of them were
employed on a permanent basis. Fifteen (or 18 percent)took temporary jobs at least once in the last year. Fortytwo have been unable to obtain new employment. One
whaler has since died and another has not been located.
Sanyo Hogei Co., Ltd. has become a vessel-chartercompany; its vessels now operate, on an annual contract
basis, as government fishery-inspection boats. Fifteen boatcrew members and two land-based personnel working for
Sanyo Hogei were then assigned to this fishery-inspection
work at lower wages, whilst three others (two boat crew
members and one land-based worker) have left the company.
Most of the temporary jobs which former large-typewhalers (other than those fortunate enough to remain with
Sanyo Hogei) acquired last year were short-term
assignments on government-chartered fishery-inspection
boats. These boats hire their crews each time they go out
for a voyage, which normally lasts two to three months.
The wages are low and there are minimal benefits. The
employment for the temporary crew member is terminatedwhen the boat returns to the home port after each assignment.
The number and kinds of jobs which laid-off large-typewhalers managed to obtain are very limited. Tables 7 and 8
provide an exhaustive list of the more or less permanent
jobs they were able to obtain. It also shows what kinds ofskills and networks were effective in being re-employed.
As the table indicates, a large portion of the alternative
employment was created by the whalers themselves. Nihon
Kinkai, a salmon cultivating venture based in Ayukawa,
was founded by several former employees of Nihon Hogei.
After some struggles and a fortunate market environment
it appears these individuals will manage to earn about 6065 percent of their previous years’s income.
A small number of individuals were able to find jobs
through family connections; surprisingly few were able
to find jobs through other means. The only occupational
skills that appear to be effective in obtaining alternative
employment outside whaling and family businesses appear
to be engineer’s and cook’s skills.
Whalers in general, and especially crewmen of thecatcher boats, have little experience in business

transactions. So it is very difficult for them to get into a
new business using the compensation money which they
were paid by the company at the termination of theiremployment. In fact, one whaler who attempted to get
into a small restaurant business found himself a victim offraud.
An additional problem all former whalers encounteris their relatively high age. The average age for boat crews
for example, is 47.7 years. Given the limited employment
opportunities for the middle and older aged men in generalin Japan, whalers are in a difficult situation.
It is important to note the fact that large-type whalers
have poor personal networks outside the work groups(company) and their own kin groups (see also Totten etal., 1983: 40-41). Large-type whalers worked in tight andclosed groups, on the boats and in the whaling stations, inremote places. When they were away from home, theytended to be isolated from the rest of the community, andwhen they are back home they never stayed long enoughto firmly establish and develop personal networks outside
their own whaling groups. In addition, whaling has beena shrinking industry for some years, such that as a businessenterprise it lost its connections with other industries. As
a result, when whaling ended the whalers had few outside
associates to assist them in seeking alternative employment.
Small-type whalers
Small-type whalers are faced with different problems
than are large-type whalers, partially because small-typewhaling is still continuing though at a significantly reduced
scale (see the section on Japanese whaling in 1988), andpartially because small-type whaling is socially andeconomically quite different from large-type whaling.
In 1987, the year before minke whaling in Japanese
coastal waters was banned by the IWC, 75 full-timeworkers and 38 seasonal helpers were employed by eightsmall companies (Table 9). All the companies except one
laid off all their employees before the summer of 1988
when it became clear that the IWC would not grant an
emergency allocation. Some companies rehired whalerswhen Baird’s beaked whaling began in July and kept them
employed through the fall until the national quotas forbeaked and the pilot whales were taken. About half of thelaid-off small-type whalers were fortunate enough to beallowed to work on the whaling boats or the flensing
stations for 2 to 5 months (as opposed to 6 to 8 months in
the previous year) for salaries reduced to 50 to 90 percentof the previous years, and a very small customary shareof the whale meat. Despite their reduced incomes, whalers
were very grateful to be given the opportunity to continue
their occupations.
Unlike large-type whalers who had been employedcontinuously and steadily by larger companies for
relatively long periods of time, small-type whalers tend
to have more unstable and diversified occupational careers,with occasional unemployment and career switching.
Therefore, most of them are not eligible for unemployment

23

IWC/41/21

compensation for more than 3 or 6 months. In addition,
they received relatively small or no compensation due tothe very limited financial resources of the small companies
employing them. As a result, in an economical sense, they
were affected more severely than were whalers employedin commercial whaling.
However, it is to be noted that small-type whalers seemto have better personal networks than large-type whalers
in their local communities. Through their personal networks,
some found jobs on fishing boats and other types of boats.
However, Japanese coastal fishing today is quite unstable
and cannot provide reasonably assured employment and asteady income.
Some laid-off whalers acquired small boats with outboard motors and have attempted to become self-employedsmall-scale fishermen. Small-scale fishing is done largely
for subsistence ends, and provides only occasional andmeagre cash income. This way of life is feasible only whena part of the living expenses is subsidized, either by relatives
or some other means.
Some whalers are engaged in salmon cultivation in
Ayukawa during the non-whaling season. These men
receive reduced but steady salaries from the company.
However, some find themselves physically unsuited to thistype of work (see the section on psychological and healthrelated problems).
Small-type whalers have mostly been unsuccessful ingetting alternative employment outside of their local
community utilizing their kinship and friendship-based
networks. Two younger whalers from Ayukawa attempted
to work at a dock near Tokyo, leaving their families in
Ayukawa. However, they could not bear the isolation nor
could they cope with a new way of life for so little emotionaland financial reward. They both returned home and one
began temporary work at a fish processing factory, and theother as a laborer in road construction. One of them says:“Financially I am no better than when I was working at thedock, but at least I feel better being together with my wifeand children.”
Table 10 lists all the cases in which small-type whalers
were successful in getting alternative employment as ofDecember, 1988. As the data show, almost all the permanent
jobs are provided by the small-type whaling companies
which still managed to offer employment to thirty of theirworkers, though at considerably reduced pay. Only four
men are employed by other businesses or in the public
sector. As with other whalers, most small-type whalers aremen in their 40’s and 50’s at this time (Tables 8, 10, 11
and 12).
It is common for the wives of the former small-typewhalers to take seasonal and part-time jobs, at minimum
wages, at local food-processing shops and retail stores inorder to supplement the reduced family income. Those who
do not take such jobs are either medically incapacitated orhave small children to take care of; in such cases, thefinancial strain is even more severe.
Some whalers have almost exhausted their savings. One

has had to sell his car to acquire some cash, and two whalers
who have many dependents to support are in danger oflosing their homes.
One whaler’s story: owner-harpooner of small-typewhaling boat, Taiji“I entered whaling in 1947 when I was eighteen years
old. We hunted sperm and sei whales; at first I was theengineer, but in 1951 I became a harpooner using a threebarrelled gun, first on a nineteen ton boat and later on atwenty-nine ton boat. Then I became the harpooner on acatcher boat in the Antarctic, working from 1956 to 1968
with Kyokuyo Company. After eleven antarctic expeditions
I started small-type whaling in Taiji, in 1970. I built myfifteen-ton small-type whaling boat in 1978, and as it was
fast enough to catch even fast-swimming Bryde’s whales(it was capable of going 22 knots) it created great
expectations and excitement among Taiji people.
“But now, due to the moratorium my small boat can’t
operate, and I have a hard time finding jobs for my crew;
they wanted to stay with me, but I had to advise them,starting in December 1987, the future didn’t look bright,
so they should look for new jobs. I may be able to keep on
two of them, but I can’t assure them of good wages. Twoof my crew left, one living on unemployment, the othertrying fishing on a seasonal basis only. So two crew
members stayed on; I hired a man with experience in tunafishing and we tried that from February until April lastyear, but we couldn’t make any profit. It requires aninvestment to refit a boat for tuna fishing, a refrigeration
system for one thing. In May we couldn’t fish as theweather was too bad; then some fishermen sighted about
200 pilot whales twelve to thirteen miles off Taiji, so wewent there and took three whales. Next day we saw morepilot whales, but I couldn’t hunt them; I couldn’t makeprofit from those whales knowing my whaler colleagues
in the northern whale towns couldn’t participate in thehunt. I also wouldn’t catch whales because IWC wasmeeting at that time, so I waited for their decision on aquota. But after the IWC meeting ended, the whales had
left so I didn’t have an opportunity again.
“Then in July I hired another crew member in order tohunt beaked whales. There were four of us in all; normally
we have a crew of five for whaling, but I couldn’t affordanother person. However, after ten days of whaling I
realized I had to have another crew member, so I hired aman in Wada, where we land the whales we catch.
“At the start of the season last year, I could only
take four beaked whales and twelve pilot whales. I
thought I could survive financially but I could not onthat harvest. So I started to fish for tuna, but there is nomoney in that and many local tuna fishermen are goingout of business.
“However, due to the moratorium, the price of whale
meat has escalated; the value of beaked whale has doubled
since 1987, and a price rise is occurring with pilot whales
also.
“So last year I reduced my operating expenses: I only
24

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
paid out sixty-percent of the previous years crew-related
expenses. My crew were free to try to find jobs elsewhere,
but I wanted them to come back to me when I was whaling.
Last year I only paid my crew two months salary, because of
the shorter season (we didn’t have a minke whale quota)
compared to six months salary and bonuses the season before.
“I not only reduced crew costs, but also the maintenancecosts on my boat: she wasn’t repainted and I didn’t put her
into dry dock. We also made fewer voyages so I saved on
fuel and provisioning costs. But despite these savings, andthe rising value of whale meat, I barely made any profit.
“We were advised to form partnerships with other boatowners so as to share expenses and further reduce operatingcoats. Sometimes these partnerships are difficult to manage:
whose crews to use, whose boat, how to calculate costs
when some owners are still paying back loans on their boats,and so on. However, fewer boats hunting means lessefficient whaling, as more search time is required per boat.
I have no problems with my crew as I did pay themcompensation, and I have two crew members on half-salary
for the full year. But other operators have problems with
their crew members. But the loss of the minke whale caused
hardship, because minke whaling is a six-month season ofwork (compared to only a two-month season for beaked
whale) and the bonus and crew shares of the profit are higher
for minke whale (see Appendix II).
“Some of my crew members did try to take up fishingfor a living. But they didn’t stay long; fish stocks here arelimited and as the number of fishing boats increases the
profits go down. Also newcomers entering fishing create
problems for the older, established fishermen, as thenewcomers have new and better equipment. No, whaling
is a very specialized job, and its hard to find other
employment if one is no longer whaling.”
Can unemployed whalers find employment in local
fisheries?
Because whaling towns have active nearshore fisheries,
whalers were asked whether they might take up fishing in
local waters as an alternative income source. This is how
one Taiji ex-whaler responded:“If we could take up local fishing we would. But
people here cannot just switch to other fishing. I
am unemployed and miserable. The fishing isdifferent here, and we don’t have the skills. And
there is little enough space available to eachfisherman, so we could not make much of a living.”
Globally, local fisheries are often industries of lastresort. Where an unemployed coastal labor force is theconcern, fisheries are often incorrectly assumed able toprovide subsistence and/or income for those otherwise
unable to find employment. It is a dangerous assumption,for it is equally evident that coastal fisheries in bothindustrialized and developing countries often have too many
fishermen and inadequate grounds and fish resources toyield new entrants more than a marginal return. This seems
the case in Japanese coastal fisheries near communities
affected by the whaling moratorium. A small number ofwhalers have attempted to enter local fisheries in some
capacity. It may, in some few cases, be possible to enter asa member of a relative’s crew, rather than as an independent
fisherman boat-operator.
In Japan, entry into local fisheries requires meeting
criteria set by local fishermen groups that regulate fishingaround particular species in their waters. Fishing experienceand knowledge of local customs are major criteria foradmission to their ranks as well as for subsequent success,as is also the case in other nations (see e.g. Acheson 1988).
At Taiji, for example, lobster fishermen are organized intoa group with from 70-80 members. New applicants foradmission to this group are typically other fishermen at ornear retirement. It seems to be a pensioner’s fishery, with alimited season, a small amount of permissible gear, andrelatively small earnings. It hardly meets the needs of aformer whaler with heavy financial obligations.
“There is not much likelihood an unemployedwhaler could become a lobster fisherman or usefully
supplement an existing income.... The catch andthe season is so limited, no-one can make a living
at it; we are old and retired, but it helps out ourpensions....”(Elderly lobster fisherman, Taiji)
At Taiji some small-type coastal and perhaps a few
former pelagic whalers have taken up skin diving forshellfish (e.g. abalone), and/or handline fishing, especially
if they have had such experience early in their careers. Onlya handful of former whalers have entered these activities(see Tables 8 and 10) and financial returns from them areprobably marginal, for there are already too many men
competing for a small resource on a small ground. The
resource situation at Wada, Ayukawa and Abashiri is quite
similar, should former whalers seek to enter local fisheries.
“My concern is with the unemployment caused by
the moratorium.... The longer you are without a job
the harder it becomes. I can’t find a stable job at
my age; there aren’t many jobs available in thistown. I bought a small boat and I go out fishing,but its not easy to make a living — you need skill
and experience to succeed in fishing. Fishing forthe expensive species is tightly controlled, so
whalers don’t enter those fisheries; they are
restricted to fishing for the cheap fish where there
are few entry restrictions and little profit to be
made.”(58-year old ex-whaler, Taiji)
Common barriers to Whalers’ becoming re-employed
Whaling is one of the most specialized of all thefisheries. It uses special harpoon guns but no nets or lines
which are typically used in fishing. Whalers normally search
for whales using their own senses rather than electronicequipment which most off-shore and high-seas fishingvessels utilise. The skills required to handle the catch arealso quite different. As a result, the skills whalers haveacquired through years of experience on the whaling boats
are of little use in fishing.
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IWC/41/21

The skills which may be potentially applicable to workon fishing and merchant marine vessels are an engineer’s
technical skills and communications officer’s knowledgeof electronics. However, rapid technological advancements
quickly make their knowledge and skills obsolete, andabilities to effect repairs on board practically useless. As aresult, there are few jobs in these areas today. Of the twelve
or so former whaling-boat engineer and radio officers only
a few have successfully found new employment asengineers, and none have been hired as communications
officers.
A navigator’s license is still highly regarded and hassome currency. However, today’s demands for navigators
are largely on domestic freighters and chemical and oiltankers where extensive knowledge of complex
waterways in numerous ports throughout Japan isrequired. Captains and sailors having experience on
whaling vessels, unfortunately spend most of their timeon the open sea, and know only the few whaling ports
where they land their catches and have their vessels
repaired. Therefore, experience on whaling vessels is notregarded as particularly useful by the owners of domesticcargo vessels and tankers.
What makes the situation even more difficult arechanges which have taken place in the last decade or so in
the Japanese merchant marine industry. Toughcompetition with land and air transportation has forced
the industry to shrink and rationalize itself. Thus lay-offs
and early retirement squeezed many seamen out of
employment. At the same time the rapid collapse of theJapanese North Pacific fishery caused by strict exclusionfrom the 200-mile economic zones of other coastal
countries, has created high unemployment among
Japanese seamen. For example, in 1970 there were 570,000
people employed in the Japanese fishing industry; by 1975
the number had decreased to 478,000, and in the next two
years, a further 19,000 people lost their jobs in the industry.
In the two-year period 1976-78, twenty-nine types ofJapanese fishery were affected by foreign 200-milefishery-zone extensions, during which period the numberof Japanese fishing vessels decreased by 33.7 percent, andthe number of fishermen (including whalers) by 26.7
percent (Totten et al., 1983: 34).
The only skills easily applicable outside the maritime
industry are in cooking, which experienced cooks on thelarger whaling vessels have acquired. Although notregarded as very highly skilled, nevertheless ships’ cooks
are considered employable as short-order chefs or as cooksin small family-owned restaurants.
In conclusion, whaler’s skills have little, if any,marketability in fishing and other maritime industries inJapan today, where the decline of the maritime industry
in general has shrunk the job market and where
unemployment is pervasive. There is little hope that a large
number of laid-off whalers who are presently unemployed
will ever be re-employed in the maritime industry where
their skills and experience have some, though restricted,

relevance.
Psychological and health-related problems
Almost all the laid-off whalers and prematurely retired
whalers say they suffer from frustration, uncertainty about
their future prospects, loss of status and pride, and feelingsof powerlessness and uselessness. Many still wish
desperately to recover their former occupations which they
loved and were proud of, while others have resigned
themselves completely from whaling and their former
professional careers. Many claim that it hurts whenneighbors and acquaintances enquire about their condition;“The psychological impact is more severe and painful thanthe economic impact”, says the owner of a small-typewhaling boat.
Those whalers, who had been employed on a full-timebasis, were able to collect unemployment compensation,
which helped their family finances considerably. But at thesame time they were embarrassed to take the money without
doing any work. To those who do not have a record ofcontinuous employment at the same company, theallowance companies offered was small and unemployment
benefits soon ended. Many small-type whalers belong tothis category of worker and to them the economic impact isacute and severe.
Most Whalers’ wives have part-time jobs, and a few
even have full-time jobs, in order to supplement the reduced
family income. However, this causes the husband to lose
status as the money-earner in those households.
The levels of psychological stress appear to have risen
considerably in some families. A nurse at the municipal
hospital in Ayukawa was aware of two recent cases ofsuspected neuroses; one laid-off whaler and the wife of alaid-off whaler. Both were ashamed to come to the local
hospital and chose to go to a hospital in Ishinomaki City
where they can be more or less anonymous.
“I have a distinct impression that stress-relateddisorders such as stomach ulcers, are increasing inthis town. There is also more mental stress,
depression and neuroses among working-age men.
We know patients who are suffering fromdepression, from seeing their medical records, butthey don’t go for treatment as its a cause of shame.
However, the ulcer patients do get treatment.”(Public health nurse, Taiji).
To those who have been employed by larger whaling
companies where work was more regimented, loss of jobs
often means loss of the structure behind their daily andyearly cycle of activity. It is not at all easy to maintain aregular and healthy pattern of life without a job, especiallywhen the wife goes out to work, leaving her husband alone
at home. In these circumstance, some have turned todrinking. One out-of-work large-type whaler in Ayukawa
died last year of liver disease caused by excessive drinking,and another laid-off large-type whaler in Taiji was
hospitalized for liver disease also caused by excessive
alcohol intake. Since alcoholism was not known anddrinking was well controlled among the whalers in recent
26

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
years, there seems little doubt that these cases may beconnected with the consequences of unemployment causedby the whaling moratorium.
There are also four other men who are suffering fromvarious illnesses. Although it may be hard to demonstratecausal links between their illnesses and the loss of theirlong-held occupations, it is clear that their acuteunemployment problem will hinder rather than help theirrecovery, which circumstance also works against their soon
finding alternative employment.
Alternative, unfamiliar, employment has also caused
some former Whalers’ health problems. In Ayukawa, somewhalers who have switched to salmon cultivation sufferfrom severe lower back problems caused by the nature of
the work undertaken daily. As health officials in the town
acknowledge, back pain is the most common problem
encountered among many workers in salmon cultivation.
The problem is quite serious for laid-off whalers, most ofwhom have been required to accept new jobs at a relatively
high age (most of the laid-off whalers are in their late 40s
and 50s). One small-type whaling company, which
recently began salmon cultivation in order to secure some
jobs for their employees, found that three out of six
employees had back problems for which they have been
hospitalized or examined by a physician. One of theseworkers had a particularly acute problem which kept him
hospitalized for four months. This worker now has his
lower back protected by a corset and continues to work
against a doctor’s advice. “My family would starve if I
stopped working”, this whaler stated.

they now experience. None of the whalers wanted to leave
their vocation; however, as the men had no choice, theirwives are sympathetic to their plight. On the other hand,the drastic decline of family income is a serious matter.
Most wives hold to the hope that their husbands will findjobs that they will like, but if the unemployment conditions
continue, the wives may find it increasingly difficult to be
so considerate to their husbands because household
expenses are greater than their husbands’ income and thedifference is paid for by withdrawing money from the bank.
Husbands fully realize the nature of the problem; as one
Taiji ex-whaler said: “We cannot make a living by our pride
only. We have families that we have to support”.
It is necessary to point out that in Japanese society it is
the women who control the family finances and householdarrangements. They are also very largely responsible forthe total upbringing of the children. This is especially thecase in Whalers’ families where the husband is ordinarily
away from home for ten or eleven months of each year. It
is this threat of being unable to adequately carry out theirassigned responsibilities to uphold the honor of their role
as homemaker and (especially) mother, that causes some
wives to exert pressure on their husbands to somehow makesufficient money to adequately support their families.
In this search for more income, it is reported that former
whalers are placed in the situation of seriously considering
supplementing the unemployment insurance they receiveby taking on a variety of casual or temporary work
assignments. Unfortunately such action, though financiallynecessary, would place them in a situation of contravening
the conditions under which unemployment benefits are paid
to them.
Whalers do attempt to help each other, especially intheir job searching. However, some men, especially those
who held high rank on whaling vessels, find it very difficult
accepting casual employment as a ‘temporary’ worker. To
assist with meeting family expenses, some wives havetaken jobs and are working part-time in supermarkets,
hotels and restaurants. Sometimes, these wives’ activities
upset their husbands, especially when the husbands remain
unemployed. In the past, whalers could afford their wives
to be fulltime homemakers, yet now they are announcing
their economic difficulties in public by having their wives
go out to look for jobs. These incidents bring
unemployed whalers loss of face and extreme psychic
distress, with their frustration at peak due to having to accept
the reality that their wives now support them in many casesin the prime of their lives. Accordingly, wives’
employment may cause conflict within families. One exwhaler’s wife said:“I want work whenever I think about my future. I
have three children and I need more money in thenear future to give them good education and toprepare for their marriages. But I cannot go to work
now whenever I think about my husband. I cannot
cause any more shame to my husband after what
he has experienced. Even my children recommend

THE IMPACT ON WHALERS’ FAMILIES
Financial stress within the household
Since large-scale unemployment occurred as the mostevident consequence of the ban on commercial whaling it
is common sense to believe that the major impact occurredin the economic sphere of family and community life.
However, in this report it is pointed out that individuals
and families suffer from cultural, social and psychologicalstress in addition to their more obvious economic
difficulties.
The economic impact has indeed been great since
many men are unable to find new jobs, causing theirfamilies and themselves to suffer from considerable stress.
Many out-of-work whalers are presently living on
unemployment insurance, affording them a meagre
income. From these men’s view point, they experienceextreme humiliation when going to the pension office forthe small amounts of money they are entitled to receive. It
is an exceedingly stressful situation for them, since as
whalers they enjoyed status and respect and constituted
an elite group in their communities. In addition, they also
suffer from loss of their vocation, for reasons which makelittle sense seen from the perspective of their long heldand cherished beliefs and experience.
Those who are Whalers’ wives understand theirhusbands’ frustration. No one wanted the conditions that27

IWC/41/21

that I don’t go out to work.”
Older children understand their Parents’ economic
hardship. In one case, the oldest son decided to help his
parent’s financial situation by changing his mind anddeciding to find work rather than to go to college. He
insisted that he didn’t like to study and preferred to work,and declined his parent’s wish to go to college. One thisoccasion, his father who formerly was a captain, sobbed
out of despair. It caused much pain for this father that hehad failed to provide his son with a better education thanhe had himself received and that had been his dream, as
well as constituting much loss of face in public. It is a
general practice among Japanese, and is also well known
among Japanese immigrants to other countries, thatyounger children worry about their fathers and discussthese worries with their mothers. These children areconcerned about their parent’s economic circumstances,and refrain from spending money, even on school-related
activities. One Taiji mother said:“My children don’t trust me concerning money.
They believe that I am acting so positively so as
not to let them worry about it. I feel like I failed to
be a good mother (because my children worry aboutmoney so much even though that is not theirbusiness to do so).”
Disrupted patterns of family life
Moreover, the impact on Whalers’ families is not only
economic but also social. Almost all families have had toadjust to a new way of life with fathers who, as whalers,
did not spend much time with them at home. So the father’s
frustration and stress derives not only from their unhappy
economic circumstances but also from an unexpected needto establish a new role in the household where, until recently,
they were absent for much of the time.
Whalers spend most of their lives working on ships,
and they would return home for as little as ten to forty days
each year (Takahashi 1988: 15, 39). One harpooner’s wife
said that her children hardly remember their father’s facewhen he came back from his voyage, and one of them wasafraid of him because she thought he was a stranger (ibid.:57). So that it was a wife’s responsibility to raise theirchildren, to give them a good education, to handle money
matters and to maintain and protect the family; and she had
to take care of these responsibilities by herself since herhusband was away most of the time (ibid.:31). Thus,
whalers’ wives tend to be very independent and exercise
strong control over all family matters; it is quite likely thatamong whalers’ families there is a more strict division oflabor by gender than among other Japanese households dueto the long absence of the husbands.
After their husbands lost their jobs, the familiar patternof family life necessarily changed. The father’s constantpresence at home required patience and forebearance fromall family members. Each family (mother and children) had
an accepted routine that was followed during father’sabsence. However, normally fathers did not spend enoughtime at home to understand these domestic routines, so thatthrough ignorance, fathers were liable to offend these codesand cause tension within a family, especially with respect
to their children’s activities. In such circumstances, children
began to avoid their fathers because they are so often scoldedby their fathers seemingly without reason. Sometimes
children were confused and hurt because of differences theyobserved in their Parents’ approach to school-related orhousehold affairs.
While husbands were away, many wives participatedin community activities, such as the women’s association,
since they had the time and benefitted from the mutual
support provided by other wives. It is generally true thatJapanese women prefer to spend their leisure time with
their friends rather than with their husbands, and in similar
fashion, their husbands choose to go out and socialize with
their friends rather than stay with their families.
Nowadays, with their husbands out of work, it is hard forwives to participate in these activities, both because of
their husbands being at home, or because the wives haveto go to work. Many Japanese men still want their wives
to be at home when they are there, especially in theevenings, so their wives feel the need to request theirhusband’s permission to go out, permission which in somecases husbands are reluctant to give. Women emphasise
their need to see their friends, to talk over, and thereby
reduce, the stress the present hardships have created intheir lives.
Effects on children of whaling families
In some families where mothers are employed outside
the home as part-time workers, children suffer more than
do children whose mothers stay at home. A mother of three
in Taiji complained that she had to work in order to makemoney for two children who are students at universities.
And because of her work as a waitress at a restaurant, shecannot spend time with her youngest child even at
weekends because weekends and holidays are busy times
at the restaurant. This mother cannot attend any of theschool activities that require Parents’ attendance. It should
be noted that generally speaking, no Taiji man ordinarily
attends this kind of school activity since this is a mother’sarea of parental responsibility. This absence from school
events breaks her heart as she feels so sorry for her child,
who experiences such loneliness while other children arewith their mothers. During winter, children return homefrom school to homes that are dark and unheated and with
no-one waiting to welcome them; every mother feels badabout such a situation but they have no choice underpresent circumstances. In Japanese society a motherordinarily expects to devote all her activities and attention
to child-rearing, and such transgressions cause them great
distress, especially whilst children are receiving theirformal education and therefore potentially very vulnerable.
“My wife prepared herself for the effect of themoratorium — for having an out of work husband.
She can’t work outside of the home as our daughter
is in the third year of high school and preparing
for university entrance examinations, so her
28

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limitmother must stay with her at this critical time forJapanese families.”(58-year old ex-whaler, Taiji)
The whaling towns have long enjoyed the reputation
for absence of crime and no problems with young people;
however, town officials at Ayukawa, the most severely
impacted of the whaling towns, now see disturbing signsof such anti-social trends, and the new phenomenon ofchildren returning to homes without adults to supervise
them is an evident cause of concern in both Abashiri andAyukawa (Bestor 1989: 7-8). Parents in Taiji appear
hopeful that such disturbing tends will not occur undersimilar circumstances that also prevail there: witness one
former harpooner’s observation on the state of affairs in
Taiji, despite the long absence of fathers at sea on whalingboats:“We could talk with each other, and we knew about
each other. Family violence has become very
common in Japan, but not with us whalers. I have
one daughter, and she has been exposed to and knew
about anti-whaling movements since she was small;
she has grown up with it, but she is still proud ofher father. She will continue to respect her father.
They, the children, know.”
Interpersonal stress and conflict
In the case of the husband and wife relationship, thisis another source of tension in family life. The majority ofmarriages among middle-aged couples were arranged, sothat spouses did not know each other very well at the timethey married. A couple in their fifties said that even when
they were a newly-wed couple, a husband who was apelagic whaler had to leave home after one week of theirmarriage for almost a full year. Married couples therefore
did not have enough time to understand each other at all
as individuals; but as their married life is ‘role oriented’
rather than ‘love oriented’, and they understand the roleof husband or wife as it is defined in Japanese society,their interpersonal relationships tend to be based on theirrole as a husband or a wife rather than on love.
Furthermore, the time when husbands came home was soshort that couples tended to act out their marriage moreby role playing that by trying to really understand eachother. After they become parents, most of their concerns
focussed upon their children and they did not talk about
themselves. An ideal Japanese husband is ‘a man who isaway from home and is healthy’ according to a well-known
Japanese saying. Accordingly, whalers were ideal
husbands and in addition they were well paid. Whenhusbands and fathers came home, they were welcomedby their families who treated them hospitably since they
were like ‘special guests’ in each family. A young Taiji
woman, remembering her childhood said: “When myfather came home, my mother served us such a special
dinner, one that we usually never saw”. Whalers weretreated respectfully by their families and for a short timethey were the center of family interest. All enjoyed thefamily reunion but it was special time that went very fast.

Thus, for these couples now, this is the first time intheir marriage that they have spent time together longenough to understand each other. The wife of a Taiji
whaling boat captain who has been married for 22 years
observed:“I was so disappointed with my husband. I did notunderstand him at all. And after 22 years ofmarriage, I found nothing in common with him.
But this may be also the case from my husband’s
point of view. He might be disappointed with me,
too. Well this is the time of endurance for us.”Men seldom speak about their life at home, but ahusband/father who was a harpooner said that it took him
about a year to make an adjustment to live with his own
family.
In the Abashiri whaling community a significant amountof interpersonal conflict has occurred among whalers who
until the 1988 ban on minke whaling regarded each other as‘a family’. Hunting whales with the small boats used in the
coastal whale fishery involves a high degree of cooperation,
both at sea and whilst in port. When each of the two smalltype whaling operators in Abashiri decided on different
strategies to overcome the stricture imposed by the 1988
zero quota on minke whales the crew of the one boat whose
employment was terminated became angry as they saw theother boat owner attempting to operate on a smaller quotaof whales and also diversifying into catching other cetaceans.
Interpersonal tensions among work associates who wereformerly fully cooperative, added to the stress they felt
concerning their family responsibilities in the face ofimpending unemployment in an uncertain job market. Table
12 illustrates the employment status and the numbers ofdependents among the Abashiri whalers. Whalers and theirwives report similar social and emotional impacts to thoseexperienced by whaling families in the other whaling towns,
e.g. problems associated with wives having to seek parttime employment, the unfortunate role-reversal that
accompanies Whalers’ losing their jobs, and the looming
financial problems resulting from job loss from small
companies unable to pay ongoing pension or benefit
allowances. The changes in spousal relationships are
summed up by the wife of an Abashiri coastal whaler who
observed:“My husband starts to help me with the householdchores, but I feel sad about that, because I am notused to it and also I want him to be manly andcatch whales in the ocean.”
However, though the sentiment expressed is a common
one among whalers’ wives, the reality is that most of the
Abashiri whalers are, at the present time, no longer
employed in active whaling; those who have maintainedsome similar employment are engaged in flensing on landor caretaking non-operating whaling boats.
Concern about family traditions disrupted by thewhaling ban
Other concerns of these families involve cultural andtraditional matters. One whaling town, Taiji, has an 80029

IWC/41/21

year involvement with whaling, and being a whaler is afamily occupation. And even in those other towns having ashorter involvement with whaling, many whaling families
include immigrants from regions of the country with acenturies-old whaling tradition (Akimichi et al., 1988: 26,
28). Some women who are whalers’ wives themselves comefrom whaling families. In such cases they commonly
express sorrow that they cannot pass on their family
occupation to younger generations (Takahashi 1988: 13,1955).
However, every Japanese shows respect to theirancestors and in their situation they suffer from guilt since
their family occupation may have to end causing them toloss face toward their ancestors. This family trauma needs
careful explanation to the children, yet as more than one
whaling-town resident stated:“I don’t understand the anti-whaling activities so I
can’t explain to my child what’s going on. We are
frustrated as we don’t understand the reasons for
stopping whaling. We are proud of our traditions.”(Photographic-store owner, Taiji).
Because of gradual restriction of whaling over the past
several years, nowadays, it is hard to acquire whale meateven in these whaling towns. For people who have been
living in whaling towns, whale meat is ‘to receive as a giftrather than to buy’. Pelagic whalers brought home whale
meat that was shared, and people who were working at the
local flensing stations or who had whale-related businesses
usually received their share, and all these people shared themeat they received with their friends, family and associates.
The loss of whale meat for one town, Ayukawa has meanta significant loss of community solidarity (Hardacre andManderson 1988: 11, 15, 18; Takahashi 1988: 27). Becauseof this strong association of whale meat with gift-giving,
and considering also the recent high prices of whale meat,
many people have refrained from buying whale meat.
However, older people express a strong preference for whale
meat that they had eaten long before these restrictions
applied. Despite being a younger generation, Taiji schoolaged children prefer whale meat to any other kinds of meat(e.g. beef, pork and chicken; see Appendix III). However,
because of the high prices of whale meat and its limited
supply, many mothers use other meats than whale meat athome. And even when it is served, it is sashimi. A motherof three boys said that “whale is to receive as a gift and not
to buy. If I pay money, I prefer to buy beef to whale meatbecause my sons like to eat beef, too”. It appears to be a
general trend that younger people prefer to eat meat cookedin oil rather than to eat it raw. Since whale meat is becominga special food, rather than as earlier, an ordinary meal, mostoften whale meat is now served raw, as sashimi, rather thanin cooked form. Accordingly, the young people have mostly
developed a taste for sashimi but not much for other waysof cooking whale meat. It appears likely that some young
women do not know how to prepare whale dishes otherthan sashimi, since they have had little opportunity to watch
their mothers cook. In addition, because of restriction on

the harvest of whales, some ways of cooking whale meat
have become rare due to the interruption in its readyavailability. People of Ayukawa emphasized that different
ways of cooking depend on the whale species as well as
the type of meat product. This threat to the traditionallyvaried food culture of Japan worries many people, both in
the whaling districts and throughout Japan (see Appendices
III and IV; also Hardacre and Manderson 1988: 14; Totten
et al 1983: 2-6).
Whale meat, especially in the whale towns, hasparticular added significance as a ritual food, served onparticular occasions such as at New Year. Manderson andHardacre in their recent study observe:“Whale meat, particularly sashimi, is both the staple
and the prestige food, and no ceremonial occasion,
including New Year would be complete without
it. Hence villagers were extremely grateful toreceive meat through the auspices of the Town
Office at the end of December, and all New Yearevening meals included whale meat sashimi as thecentral plate.”
The head priest of the (Koganeyama) shrine commented:“We didn’t know if we could get whalemeatsashimi for todays meal.... Since whale sashimi iseaten each year in Ayukawa we could not possibly
have had this meal today without it.... and so weare deeply grateful for those who have provided
it.”Another priest of the shrine elaborated the importance ofwhale meat...:“... From the old days we have had whale meat andregard this as necessary: we offer to the gods whale
meat despite the usual injunction of red meat.... So
it’s necessary to have whale meat for this meal: if
whaling was prohibited then we’d also be introuble.”(Manderson and Hardacre 1989: 37-38)
Many Japanese place the problem in the larger context:“Every country has its own food culture, and it iswrong to criticize other people’s dietary habits thatyou don’t share.”(6th grade student’s essay, Taiji)
The cultural impacts associated with profoundinterruption of local whaling following the 1988 ban onminke whaling have been particularly intense among the‘core whaling group’ (as defined in Iwasaki 1988) due tothe fact that in this northern region of Japan other speciesof whale have not formed part of the customary cuisine;
substitution, in the absence of supplies of minke meat, has
not occurred. Thus even though small-type whaling boats
continued to operate offshore of Hokkaido in 1988, all the
Baird’s beaked whales taken there were transported southto Honshu where the local need for the meat of this species
is very great.
The main cultural effects of the lack of fresh suppliesof minke meat in Abashiri include a marked reduction in
the traditional seasonal gift-giving (see following), and for30

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
those households who did not have a supply of salted
blubber stored from the previous year, the neardisappearance of a traditional New Years ceremonial food(kujira jiru — blubber soup). Considerable anxiety is being
expressed about the further potential unavailability of thistraditional food as frozen supplies further diminish.
The effects of the whaling ban on traditional giftgiving ceremonies
Gift-giving in Japan serves an important social
function, not only to mark important calendrical events,
such as New Year, All-souls festival, or whaling festivals,
but also sporadically throughout the year in order toreinforce social relationships (e.g. employer-employee,
priest-parishioner, business and neighborhood associates,etc.) that structure the community.
“For two generations we had free meat, we never
had to buy it. our especial relationship was with
the Kyokuyô Company although we also hadbusiness with Taiyô Gyogyô and Nippon Suisan— and it was Kyokuyô especially then who
provided us the fertilizer material. So we’d buy
the scrap from the company (for fertilizer) thenget the meat free.”(Fertilizer manufacturer, Ayukawa, quoted in
Manderson and Hardacre 1989: 18)
In the small whaling communities of Ayukawa, Taiji
and Wada, and among the core whaling group in Abashiri,gift-giving might be expected to provide needed
reassurance and coherence at this time of community
disintegration. Unfortunately the whaling ban that hascaused these disintegrating tendencies has also seriously
eroded peoples’ ability to provide the customary gifts thatmight have served to strenghten community solidarity.
In their report on the effects of the moratorium on thewhaling community of Ayukawa, Professors Manderson
and Hardacre devote more than twenty pages to describing
the different ceremonies when gifts (e.g. oseibo, onenshi,
otoshidama, ochûgen, fukuwake) are given, most of which
involve the gifting of whale meat. They observe thatformerly whale meat was so widely distributed as giftsthat no-one in Ayukawa had to purchase it (Manderson
and Hardacre 1989: 22). At the present time gifting, andthe community-wide visiting involved in appropriately
distributing the gifts, has all but ceased with an associatedweakening of community solidarity that such communitywide ceremonials traditionally effected (ibid: 4).
The same institutions have been negatively affectedin the other whaling communities. For example, asupermarket manager in Taiji observed:“When pelagic whaling operated it supplied thenational market, so Taiji consumed all the small
coastal whaling production. Now some of the smalltype coastal whaling produce enters the national
distribution system. The gifting system here has
been almost destroyed. When I was young, whale
was for giving and fish was for buying.”
Whereas whalers would gift whale meat, non-whalers in

the community receiving it would reciprocate with suitable
gifts, either from their own labour (as fishermen, seaweed
gatherers or cultivators, gardeners, etc.). In many cases giftsof produce may be accompanied by purchased items toenhance their value to the recipient. Merchants observed that
their formerly high sales at oseibo-time (end of the year) andochûgen-time (mid-summer) were now significantly reduced;
these included merchants situated in neighboring towns. For
example, in Shingu, a larger town adjacent to Taiji, merchants
maintained a coupon-system whereby with each ¥1000(2) spent
the customer received a coupon which could later be
redeemed. In Table 13, a suggestive trend is apparent,
indicating that indeed despite the participation rate for Taiji
customers (compared to customers from other towns)
declining only slightly in recent years, the numbers andproportion of Taiji customers redeeming coupons has
progressively and significantly diminished since the severe
contraction of whaling started in recent years. The example
given in Table 13 indicates a decline from 32.2 percent before
the contraction of whaling to 14.3 percent (for coupon
redemption during oseibo-gift purchase time) during the 19811988 period, and even more dramatically from 29.1 to 7.5
percent for redemptions during ochûgen-gift purchase timeover the same two time periods.
The loss of sociability that results from a forced end to
customary gift-giving causes stress within families as wellas the community at large. The wife of one Abashiri whaler
commented:“My relatives must know that my husband is notcatching whale this year, because they don’t evencall to make an arrangement to visit us. They used
to come every year to enjoy fresh whale meat at
this time of the year.”This change in visiting behavior is in large part causedby concern for the gift-givers drastically changed
circumstance, an awareness of their sense of shameassociated with loss of profession, and that the need topurchase a suitable substitute food or gift for the formerlyavailable whale meat would add to the hardship alreadybeing suffered. The scale of this gifting can be gauged fromone Abashiri whaling boat owner’s comment that his father
used the meat of three whales each year for gift purposes,
and he himself would use up to two whales a year (reported
in Bestor 1989: 13); in Ayukawa a boat owner reported heneeded to use as many as five whales each year for gift
purposes (Akimichi et al., 1988: 46).
There is obviously a high economic, as well as social,cost associated with observing these traditions. In order toattempt to rationalize some of these costs, the practice ofindividual’s keeping ‘open-house’ at New Year in Ayukawa
has necessarily ended. Just recently the mayor of that town
attempted to institute a community-wide New Year party
in the town office in order to reduce the townspeoples’
expense involved in individually hosting guests (Manderson
and Hardacre 1989: 4). However, this substitutearrangement has itself ceased as the community can nolonger afford the cost; the effect is to have “severely31IWC/41/21

reduced... the community’s ability to renew itself or tomaintain its social organization” (ibid: 4).
The end-of-year gift exchange (oseibo) has considerable social and cultural importance in Japanesesociety. Whale meat has formed the basis of oseibogifting among whalers, and given the esteemed natureof whale meat, finding appropriate substitutes has caused
difficulties. Members of the whaling community in
Abashiri have sought to overcome the lack of whale meatfor gifting by two means: first, by purchasing expensivealternative gift-foods that enable them to convey theappropriate sentiment that oseibo-gifting enshrines, andsecond, by attempting to produce an acceptable whalemeat gift from unfamiliar whale products. The expensive
substitute gifts include purchased salmon or salmon roe,which given the whalers’ reduced financial circumstancehas caused them to reduce the number of people to whomthey would ordinarily send gifts, a necessary action which
is nevertheless regretted. One whaler reported an
expenditure of ¥300,000 for oseibo gifting, which
ordinarily was accommodated by non-purchased whale
meat. As 1988-89 is the first year these Abashiri whalers
have had to cope with lack of whale meat, it is notpossible to predict how they will manage in future years
as their economic circumstances decline.
The importance of whale meat in the oseibo-gift
ceremonial has caused the Abashiri whalers who did
participate in the Baird’s beaked whale fishery (andtherefore received customary shares of whale meat) tohave some of that meat canned by a local processor so as
to constitute a new product which might therefore beappreciated despite the unfamiliarity of beaked whale in
the local cuisine.
There are two main disadvantages associated withthese compensatory actions. The first is the substantial
cost the whalers now incur in order to participate in oseibogift exchange, and the second is the lack of symbolic
meaning associated with the substitute gifts; red meat andwhite blubber provides the appropriate color symbolismthat is especially appreciated by the recipient of the gift.
Symbolism and aesthetic appeal rank very highly inJapanese ritual and ceremonial life.
The reduced extent of oseibo-gifting due to financial
considerations has already been mentioned; this reductionis also, in part, due to the breakdown in work-related
association. Whalers have developed the custom of
exchanging oseibo with crew members on other whaleboats who perform similar roles; thus harpooners exchangeoseibo with harpooners, engineers with engineers, and soon. Whalers explain the breakdown in the custom this year
as being due to the expense and the lack of interaction
caused by non-whaling.
In conclusion, people of whaling towns are presently
experiencing four-fold problems of an economic,
psychological, social and cultural nature. Some of the
problems they now have began soon after the restrictionof whale harvesting began. However, these problems
developed most critically following the ban of commercial
whaling and in similar fashion, following the limitation
placed on small-type coastal whaling in 1988.

IMPACT ON WHALING TOWNSWith the end of large-type coastal whaling, several
businesses in Ayukawa, Taiji and Wada (as well asneighboring towns) suffered significant financial loss. The
main businesses affected will be discussed below.
Whale meat processors
In 1987, the year before the moratorium on whalingcame into full effect, there were five processors in Taiji
involved in various types of processing of the edible partsof sperm whale, bryde’s whale and pilot whale.
These processors had contracts with a large-typewhaling company which operated a landing station in Taiji.
The processors undertook the fine cutting of the odd-shaped
blocks of meat and handling the scrap meat of sperm whale
and Bryde’s whale which the whaling company’s land crew
was not able to handle. When the work was very busy, thewhaling company asked the processors to assist in
butchering work too. When fresh organ meat was available,
these processors had the privilege of buying it at a low price.
The boiled internal organs, especially small intestine andpancreas, are favored by local consumers. Pilot whale meat
was sliced, salted and sun-dried. The largest processor was
also engaged in salting of fluke meat and blubber, as wellas producing irikawa (fried blubber) by extracting oil
through cooking.
Cessation of large-type coastal whaling had aconsiderable impact on these processors. They lost almost
all their business based upon various types of whale meat.
Although pilot whales are still caught locally, the price ofthe meat has risen so high that it is not feasible to buy it forsun-drying (Table 14). The only product that is still available
to these processors is an occasional supply of organ meatof the pilot whale. When they manage to acquire some,they boil it and sell it to the local retail stores.
The most severely affected was the largest processor in
Taiji, who had been extensively involved in processing
various types of whale meat. This processor, who runs his
business with his 30-year old son and a dozen part-time female
workers, decided to move to the processing of fish, mainly
by salt-drying. This move required a considerable financial
investment (about ¥15,000,000), for the purchase of a large
walk-in freezer (to store fish) and an electrically-operated
low temperature dryer (to dry fish). The small company did
not lay-off its part-time helpers, nor did it reduce workers’
wages (which were already minimal), but the hours of work
were reduced. The women workers also lost the
supplementary payment (10-20 percent of their basic wage)
for laundering their work clothes that work with whale meat
would have provided. As a result of these changes the parttime workers lost about 50 percent of their income during thewhaling season. This particular processor has undertaken a32

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
large risk, investing so large an amount of capital into abusiness which neither he nor his helpers had little previous
experience with. The elderly processor stated:“I know I am taking a big chance. I wouldn’t havedone it if this business were just for myself. But
my son, who is still young, must make a living here.
So there is no other choice but to try.”
Other processors in the town had been processing fishin addition to whale meat, so they just expanded their fishdrying facilities to increase production. They invested inadditional dryers or replaced old high-temperature dryers
with more advanced low-temperature dryers in order to keep
their businesses competitive. None of these processors laid
off their part-time helpers who were all women, nor did
they reduce the hours of working. However, the workers
did forego the supplementary payments which they hadreceived when handling whale meat.
The main problem these processors have to face iscompetition with producers outside the town of Taiji. Since
dried fish are common commodities (unlike whale
products), and not unique to Taiji, they must compete withall the producers throughout Japan. In addition, Taiji has
a disadvantage in that it does not produce much low-priced
small fish which is the most suitable for drying. Therefore,
the processors have to acquire most of their supplies fromthe fish markets in other parts of Wakayama Prefectureand neighboring Mie Prefecture. This adds to their costsof production. It is still uncertain whether all of theseprocessors will be able to get the necessary returns on their
new investment and stay in business. If they fail, theirfailure could have serious social and economic
implications, since these processors provide employment
to many wives of out-of-work whalers.
Implications of the forced changes in Baird’s beaked
whaling on local businesses
The IWC-imposed zero-catch limit on minke whales
had a significant socio-economic impact on small-typewhaling companies and various groups in the whaling
locales dependent upon the whale products.
As described elsewhere (Akimichi et al., 1988: 86) in1987 35 Baird’s beaked whales were caught and landed in
Wada, and 5 were caught and landed in Abashiri. To
summarize the 1987 situation, the Wada-based whaling
company flensed and butchered all the 35 whales, and themeat (red meat) produced was sold only to the local
processors and fishmongers. Some of the meat was locallyconsumed fresh, but the largest part was hand-processedand sun-dried either at the processors’ shops or on the beach.
The five whales landed in Abashiri were flensed andbutchered at the two small-type whaling stations there, but
the meat was all shipped to the Wada area, where it wasalso sun-dried to make the local specialty, tare.
Approximately 80 percent of the meat, both fresh and dried,
was consumed locally within the south-western part of Awa
county. The long-inherited local customs and values
attached to whaling and whale-meat consumption made it

possible to distribute the meat through a dozen small
processors (tare makers) and fishmongers, that were allfamily-run businesses, and a few peddlers on bicycle or
motorcycle to the local consumers at a relatively low price.
Thus the needs of the local producers, processors,
distributors, and consumers were all satisfied by thesecustomary practices in 1987, as in previous years (seeAkimichi et al., 1988: 86-91 for additional information).
This delicately balanced system, however, wassignificantly altered by the new situation that has recently
arisen because of the ban on coastal minke whaling andsperm whaling.
As stated before, the ban on minke whaling forced thesmall-type whalers to divide the allocated quota equally
among them, and hunting occurred in three separate
locations. As a result, the number of whales landed in Wadadecreased by 15 (or 43 percent of previous years’ catches)
which meant the amount of meat distributed from thewhaling station also decreased. Accordingly, buyers wereallocated smaller amounts of meat than in previous years.
A large part of the meat produced in Abashiri andAyukawa was sent directly to Chikura, a town near to Wada,rather than consumed locally where produced, because thetaste preference at Abashiri and Ayukawa is for the minke
whale and not for Baird’s beaked whale. The largest
processor in Chikura (a family operation with nine parttime workers) purchased all of the Abashiri and Ayukawa
beaked whale meat. This increased purchase was possible
due to financial backing from a regional bank. Most of themeat purchased was processed at this one shop, and wasneeded by the processor in order to cover the loss in supplyof sperm whale meat. Hence, only a small amount of thewhale meat from Abashiri and Ayukawa went to smaller
processors, fishmongers and peddlers in the Wada area.
Thus, Baird’s beaked whale meat was less evenly distributed
last year than the previous years, with several consequences.
Two processors stopped producing tare in 1988, because
they could not get enough whale meat to make the businessprofitable. Two peddlers also were contemplating
withdrawing from selling whale meat, because with the
reduction of profit from the small quantity available, it was
not considered worth their effort.
The largest processor who (with the bank’s help) wasable to secure a sufficient amount of meat last year might
not be so fortunate this coming year. Distributors, as wellas consumers in the whaling communities of Abashiri andAyukawa might increasingly favor Baird’s beaked whale
meat as an alternative to the minke whale meat which theyno longer are assured. In that case, a large amount of meat
will be consumed locally in those communities, and in
addition, some of the meat moves to the national market.
In fact, the price of frozen minke whale meat, which was
normally consumed raw, was about twice as high as thatof the Baird’s beaked whale meat, which was
predominately used for sun-drying. Thus the producers in
Abashiri and Ayukawa who are not as morally obligated33IWC/41/21

to the processors and consumers in Wada as are theproducers in Wada, have a financial incentive to distribute
their products to more profitable markets, and thereby
partly overcome the losses they have incurred from nonavailability of minke whale meat.
The whale meat which moved out of the traditional
distribution system of the whaling community will behave
just like any other commodity. Therefore, the locally-based
distribution system of the Baird’s beaked whale meat in
Wada will change drastically as a chain of effects of theminke whaling ban keeps reaching the community. It is
now apparent just how vulnerable is this traditional local
system when outside pressures create both changes insupply and competing non-local demands for the small
amount of whale meat required to maintain the system.
Losses associated with closing on-shore whaling
stations
With the end of the large-type coastal whaling, several
businesses in Ayukawa, Taiji and Wada suffered financial
losses. Several reported losses of around half their former
revenue (see Table 15 for example) which in many cases
caused retailers financial ruin.
“Business in this town has been affected, as people
are not spending a lot of money. With whalers
unemployed, people are shopping very carefully;
they used to spend a lot of money in Taiji, butnow, being more careful, they go to some of thelarger towns to shop so businesses here aredefinitely affected.... Many small grocery
businesses have been destroyed; about twenty areaffected, a few are just hanging on, but many havegone out of business.”(Supermarket manager, Taiji).
“The number of whale-related businesses has
declined from ten to only five over the past fifteen
years. This has resulted in half the jobs being lost.”(Businessman, Taiji).
“In this town even though we have fish as well as
whale meat, fish don’t sell well. If there is no whale
meat the fish store will also suffer. That is because
you can’t change people’s taste from whale meat
to fish overnight.”(Elderly woman, Ayukawa).
“People here are emotionally down, so they havelost the desire to shop, they just are not in the moodto spend money. This is very bad for my business.”(Electrical appliance retailer, Taiji).
“The housepainting business is definitely affected;
people used to paint their houses ever two years;
now its every four years.”(Painter and decorator, Taiji).
In Taiji the whale factory workers mostly lived in acompany dormitory, though management personnel
periodically visiting the operation would stay in local
boarding houses (minshuku). The factory employed
twenty-five or more workers for ten months each year andthe workers spent money in local restaurants and bars,
and purchased liquor and other supplies from Taiji retailstores.
“My business lost about one million yen in sales
after the whaling station closed two year ago.”(Gasoline retailer, Taiji).
Similarly in Wada, a large-type coastal whaling
company (Nittô Hogei) operated their flensing activities
at the shore facility of a local small-type coastal whaling
company (Gaibô Hogei). For ten months of each year there
were 30-35 flensers and office workers stationed in Wada;
however, unlike the situation in Taiji, the large-typewhaling company did not house its workers in a company
dormitory, but complied with a local request to utilize
lodging houses (minshuku) in the town. Employees stayed
in seven local minshuku, which provided rooms andbathing facilities for the period April to July (for the
Bryde’s whale season) and October through March (thesperm whale season). The whaling activity was therefore
carried on outside of the summer tourist season, so that it
ensured year-round business for the minshuku owners.
Whale factory workers had meals provided by thesmall-type whaling company, which activity helped
maximize the minshuku owners’ profits:“Accommodating Nittô Hogei workers was very
profitable; when I have to provide guests withmeals I need to hire extra help, but the workers,
being fed elsewhere in town, made that
unnecessary.”(Minshuku owner, Wada).
The rate charged at a typical minshuku was ¥50
thousand per month for a room which would house from
one to three whaling company employees. This charge
increased about ten percent over the years; there were extra
changes (e.g. for T.V. and services). Businesses in Wada,
especially bars and stores selling liquor, benefitted fromthe presence of the factory workers and officials, and also
from the two Nittô Hogei catcher boats each with a twentyman crew. The boat crew bought daily supplies in Wada,
and Nittô Hogei paid large fees to the town and Wada
Fishery Cooperative for use of the harbour, purchase of ice
and rental of vehicles and facilities (see below).
There are several minshuku in Taiji which offer
travelling businessmen and tourists simple but inexpensive
lodgings and meals. Some of these minshuku used to housethe land crew of the large-type whaling company. Thoseminshuku acquired considerable amounts of whale meat free
or at a very low price from these whalers in return foroffering good services to them. This meat was then used toentertain tourists.
With the cessation of large-type coastal whaling theseminshuku are not able to obtain inexpensive whale meat.
These family-run lodgings have limited storage facilities,
mostly home-size refrigerators and freezers, and could not
keep a large amount of meat in stock. By the summer of1988 these lodging places ran out of whale meat. Although34

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
limited amounts of pilot whale meat and dolphin meat
are still available locally, pilot whale meat is too
expensive for these inexpensive lodgings and dolphin
meat is unfamiliar to most tourists whose customary
cuisine does not include dolphin meat. The inability toserve whale meat to tourists who expect it has led toloss of attractiveness toward these private lodging
places in Taiji. The women interviewed who run
minshuku lodgings say they are sorry when they see theirguests disappointed and they fear they might lose theircustom because the whale-based cuisine cannot beprovided, as was the case before the moratorium cameinto effect.
The importance of whale meat to tourists visiting
Taiji can be gauged from a report in the Asahi
Newspaper (January 13, 1989) where it was reported
that 6,000 whale-meat dinners were served at the
National Inn, Taiji in 1987, compared to 2,450 dinners
in 1986. The report stated the increase came fromtourists who worried that whale-meat supplies wereabout to end with the moratorium in effect.
The nature of Japanese small business enterprises
The large number of businesses that are underdiscussion in this report are (with the exception of the fourcommercial whaling companies that ceased their operationsin November 1987) essentially small, family-run
enterprises. They are situated, after all, in small remotecommunities and in common with most family businesses
in Japan they employ few workers. Table 16 indicates thatof the 14 wholesale and 161 retail enterprises in Oshika
Town (in which municipal district Ayukawa is situated),about three-quarters of the businesses employ two or lessemployees, and less than three percent employ more than
five workers.
In considering the fate of these small whaling-related
businesses, it is especially important to consider them inthe context of Japanese society, where a completely different
set of values and commitments inhere to maintaining thefamily business, often inherited from ancestors who worked
hard to establish it and maintain its viability for the benefit
of future generations.
Bestor refers to these matters in his report as follows:“The traditional Japanese family... has always beenorganized around the principle of family enterpriseas an enduring social and economic unit, which
ideally exists through generations. It is a conceptionof family and household that is extremely different
from the notions of family... in many industrial
societies.... And within this family system, traditional
notions of obligation and filial piety place the highest
moral value on the responsibility of the present
generation... by nurturing the family’s enterprise andproperty through careful stewardship so that it may
be bequeathed to the members of future generation.”(Bestor 1989: 9-10)
Under the present circumstances, where the collapseof most whaling-dependent small business enterprises in
the whaling towns is an acute and progressive problem,
the issue transcends mere economic malaise, and involves
a pervasive sense of moral failure on the part of thenumerous people affected (see Akimichi et al., 1988: 104;
Bestor 1989: 10).
These moral and religious imperatives to respect thehonorable labour of ones ancestors are implicit in the manystatements of residents of the whaling towns:“If the time comes that whaling must stop
completely, then I feel that my ancestor’s work andhistory and culture will be gone.”(Ex-harpooner, 30 years whaling experience, Taiji; reported in
San Francisco Examiner, December 4, 1988, pp. 36-6).
“Here in Taiji we have eight-hundred years ofwhaling history... because just off Taiji is thewhales’ migration route. We should start again
from coastal whaling, go back along our eighthundred years of history, take our food from
offshore Taiji as our ancestors did.... I can’t die inpeace if I haven’t passed on the skills of myancestors.”(58-year old ex-whaler, Taiji)“My family have been whalers for so many
generations I have lost count; on my mother’s side
as well as my father’s side, and my wife’s family
too. So it’s a concern not to be able to pass on thefamily tradition for the sake of my ancestors. Manyof the other whalers are descended from whalingfamilies and have this concern for their ancestorstoo.”(58-year old former harpooner, Taiji)This family tradition involves meat processors, flensers
and retailers not just harpooners and other whale-boatcrewmen; Manderson and Hardacre (1988: 49-52) reporton an Ayukawa-area family of specialized processors ofkabura (a food prepared from whale cartilage) who learned
the technique from Taiji whalers. This family passed on
the family business for four generations by a variety of
adoption techniques in the absence of biological sons tomaintain the family line. Similar family traditions among
flensers are also reported (ibid: 45-49).
“All my ancestors were in the whale processing
business....
I believe I am the eleventh generation. If I were thelast generation I would just quit. But I still have ason....”(Meat processor, Taiji; reported in San Francisco
Examiner, December 4, 1988, p. 36.)
Bestor writes of one whale-meat distributor in
Ayukawa who“spoke with sadness at the estrangements in social
and business relationships that he had suffered as aresult of the moratorium, having to sever ties withother dealers with whom he had maintained close
ties for decades....” (Bestor 1989: 21).

35

IWC/41/21

The Fisheries Cooperative Associations
Within fishing-whaling communities the Fisheries
Cooperative Associations (FCA) assume an importantrole. Apart from operating the wholesale fish markets inthese towns, they also operate financial and educational
programs and carry out regulatory aspects of the local
fishery. Clearly, any weakening of their ability to carryout their important roles will have serious consequencesin these small communities where fishing activities involvethe majority of residents and businesses.
A recent study by Professor Bestor has documented
the changes occurring at the Oshika FCA located in
Ayukawa; the executive summary of his report is provided
as Appendix V. Bestor’s report makes the following points
in connection with the effect of the whaling ban on the
Ayukawa FCA. First, the zero-catch limit appears toseverely undermine the financial viability of both the local
wholesale fish market, which is run by the FCA, as wellas the FCA itself. The FCA is acknowledged to be themajor institution in the economy of Oshika township(within which Ayukawa is situated). In the four years,
1984-87, the value of fresh whale meat sales through themarket accounted for about two-thirds of the total sales,
and this rose to almost 79 percent of market value in 1987
(the year before the minke whale ban came into effect;
see Tables 17 and 18). Over the four year period the valueof whale meat sales more than doubled (from ¥349 Million
to ¥723 Million) whilst the value of other maritime
products remained almost constant (Table 19). The
commissions charged on sales of whale meat form a major
component of the total revenue of the FCA, at a time ofdeclining revenue from non-whale product sales. OtherFCA operations also earned considerable portions of theirrevenue from whaling-related activities: e.g. freezing andcold storage services, and ice-sales to whalers (Table 20;
see Bestor 1989: 23-25). Bestor concludes his analysis:“Thus the disappearance of whale-related revenues willseverely undermine the financial viability of the Market
and the FCA”. (ibid: 26).
It is estimated that with the end of large-type whaling
Wada Fishery Co-operative lost about ¥13 Million inrevenues from total revenues averaging ¥18.5 Million overthe previous three years (Tables 21 and 22).
Unfortunately this significant loss of income causedby an end to large-type whaling has been further amplified
locally by the reduced small-type whaling activity thatstarted in the 1988 season. In effect, about half of theFishery Cooperative Association’s total revenue has now
been lost so that expenses now exceed revenues, forcing
the cooperative to liquidate it’s principal assets, and in
addition, borrow ¥340 million in order to continue
operating.
The Wada Fishery Cooperative Association is theprincipal, if not sole financial institution serving local
fishermen who make up the 214 regular and 232 associate
members of the cooperative. Loans made to the members

are restricted, principally to boat building and gear
purchases, though small emergency loans may be madeonce or twice a year (when fishing is bad, or whenimportant ceremonial occasions demand attention). The
main asset the cooperative possessed was land, and withthe severe reduction in local whaling, this asset has been
disposed of. Though the cooperative is in severe difficulties
it has attempted to deal with its payroll problems without
laying off workers, by hiring no new workers as
employee’s retire or resign. Thus in 1979 there were 21
employees, but in 1989 there are 14 full time employees(ten male and four female).
The inshore fishery in the Wada area is now operating
at near capacity, and the national policy is to restrict entry
into the fishery so as to allow economic survival of existing
fisher families. Thus there is no possibility of unemployed
ex-whalers becoming fishermen. In connection with the
reduction in small-type whaling in Wada in 1988, five
whalers accepted early retirement and a further nine werelaid off (for a total of 14 whalers losing employment). In
addition, due to the reduced work at the local flensing
factory (where ten fewer whales were flensed than in thepreceding year) fewer part-time workers were employed.
Although whaling did not contribute a large proportion,monetarily, to the fishery production of Abashiri town
(unlike the situation at the other whaling towns), the lossof whale product nevertheless has had an effect. According
to the local fishery report (Suisan tokei, Abashiri 1988)
the value of whale meat landed at Abashiri amounted toover ¥255 Million or about 2.8 percent of the total fisheryproduction. A similar level of production was recorded
for a local crab (¥259 Million) but both whale and crab
were commodities that the fishery promotion authorities
hoped to increasingly market as a special local commodity(meisan), a regional specialty important to the further
development of tourism in the area. It is significant to notethat the future status of scallops, the largest contributor to
the local fishery economy (19 percent of total value of
local sales), is threatened by water quality changes
occurring in the marine lagoons where the shellfish iscultivated.
In Taiji it was estimated that the Fishery Cooperative
lost sales in excess of ¥5 Million yearly when sales of ice
and propane to the whaling station recently ended, as wellas important commission-based revenues with the loss ofother whale production locally.
Moreover, it should be noted that the loss of revenues
from whaling (reflected in these business and Fisheries
Cooperative Association losses) also carry through to a lossof tax revenues to the towns themselves. As can be seenfrom Table 23, whalers as a group in the immediate past
have made a disproportionatly large contribution to town
tax revenues. This current loss of revenue comes at a timeof increasing town indebtedness as declining revenues from
whaling and fishing fail to keep pace with essential
expenditures.

36

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit

IMPACTS OCCURRING OUTSIDE THE
WHALING COMMUNITIES

resulting. As a consequence, the meat market in Sapporo
has agreed to stop marketing whale products from such
sources, though it seems likely that small amounts of meatfrom such occurrences are nevertheless consumed. (ibid:
32-33).
Of more national and profound concern however, isthe impact of the shortage of whale meat (and its consequent
increase in price) upon the clinically approved diet of infants
and children required to include whale meat in theirprescribed treatments.
Over the past ten to fifteen years the incidence of allergy
problems among infants in Japan has risen 30-35 percent.
Extensive testing of patients has indicated that the allergy
problems of infants and children are commonly derived
from particular foods. The most common foods that trigger
the allergic reaction are: egg and chicken, cow’s milk, soyoil, pork, beef, rice, wheat, white potato and other vegetables
and nuts. The symptoms and sequelae of infant food allergy
are severe, and include bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis,
stomach aches, ulcers, vomiting and skin rashes. As infants
from birth to eighteen months of age are among the highest
frequency patients, these medical problems are serious forboth patients and their parents. At the present time there
are 1,500 households involved in diet-dependent treatment
programs in fifteen major urban centres; the program isquite recent, and knowledge of the treatment tends to spreadby word of mouth and through the popular media. It is
anticipated that in the near future more groups of patients
will undertake treatment as knowledge of the treatment
spreads to smaller cities and towns and rural areas of Japan.
Treatment of patients is based upon a 5-7 day diet cycle
based upon protein sources that do not aggravate thecondition. Unfortunately, food-allergy patients are very
susceptible to chemical contaminants found in agricultural
products, so that the best dietary proteins are from wildmeats; in the Japanese context these include fish, hare,deer, frog, kangaroo (imported) and whale. However, therequired diet must be based on irregularly eaten foods, somany of the less expensive fish are not suitable fortherapeutic purposes. Additionally, deer and hare are only
seasonally available, and together with frog and kangaroo
are unfamiliar foods to many families; all are expensive
as well as difficult to obtain. Whale meat has proved to be
the most hypo-allergenic meat tested to this point; it isalso a familiar meat which was widely available andinexpensive until recently.
Many of the families with children suffering from thiscondition (dermatitis atopie) are young, and the cost of
special foods required to treat their children creates aserious financial problem for them. In addition to theinfants, the mothers are in most cases also placed on thesame diet. Where a child suffers from this allergy program,the mother if pregnant is required to follow the rotational
diet in order to prevent her newborn suffering from theallergy problem.
In order to economically provide the needed whale meat

Health-related concerns
The extent of direct health consequences of thewhaling moratorium on individuals and families in thewhaling communities has been indicated earlier in thereport. Due to the relative recency of the ban on whaling,
it will be necessary to closely monitor the healthsituation especially in regard to certain chronic healthconditions that so far are likely at an early stage ofdevelopment.
Some of the health-related concerns related toresearchers in the whaling towns reflect widely-held
opinions concerning the nutritional and dietetic benefit ofwhale meat compared to beef, pork and other agriculturally
produced meats.
“Seven years ago I examined the dental health ofchildren in Taiji. Despite their eating some candies
and so on, I was impressed by their strong teeth
which I believe was diet related.... Now the diet ischanging: earlier there was access to free andinexpensive whalemeat. Today whalemeat is more
expensive and restricted so more beef, chicken andpork is included in the diet. There is a serious effecton peoples’ health; the over-40 age group has
higher blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels
and more obesity now.”(Public health nurse, Taiji).
“When lots of men were working in the Antarctic,
their wives could affort to buy expensive meats.
Those sales have dropped badly now, but thecheaper, fatty meats are selling instead.”(Retail butcher, Taiji).
“I’ve been a butcher for eight years and I’ve spoken
to a colleague who has been in business fifteen
years: (we agree); now people only buy cheap meat,
which may have an impact on their long-term
health.”(Businessman, Taiji).
“Whale meat is delicious and it won’t upset yourstomach even if you eat a lot. It’s good to eat when
you are anemic — the health workers always tellus that compared to beef, pork and other meats,
whale is the easiest for us to digest.”(Senior citizen, Taiji).
“I know very well that farmed creatures, fish too,are polluted with all kinds of stuff, so I want to goon getting whale for the health of my family. It isthe best food for us.”
(Veterinarian, Taiji).
It has recently been reported (Bestor 1989), that due
to the continuing demand for whale meat and the recent
interruptions in supply caused by the whaling ban, somemeat from net-entangled whales has entered the market.
One such incident resulted in improperly handled meatmaking its way to consumers with some cases of sickness37

IWC/41/21

to patients in this allergy treatment program, the Food
Allergy Consultation Committee (based at Tokyo Medical
College Hospital) recently petitioned the Institute of
Cetacean Research for an allotment of the meat obtained
from the 1988 Antarctic research program (see Appendix
VI). This meat is distributed to patients’ households at a
cost of either ¥1,786 or ¥2,380 per kilogram (depending on
quality). The high cost results from the need to establish ameans of distribution from the hospital; availability of aregular supply through normal retail outlets would ensure
lower cost and more efficiency in meeting patients’ needs.
The fifteen parents’ groups throughout Japan who
follow this dietary regimen are listed in Appendix VI.
Concerns about foreign attacks on Japanese culture
According to various Japanese media reports there is
growing resentment in Japan to attacks on Japanese foodculture from activities in foreign counties. Though suchattacks are mostly based on ignorance as C.W. Nicol writes(Appendix III) prejudicial statements directed to others’cherished food habits nevertheless cause offence. In a world
increasingly beset with global problems requiring the utmost
international co-operation and mutual understanding for thecommon good, raising international ill-will is clearlycounter-productive.
“When I went abroad, I said to Americans: we don’t
just kill whales, we are grateful to the animals wemust kill for food, and we hold memorial services
to show our respect. But they still didn’t understand,and to me, that’s just racism.”(Town official, Taiji).
“Everyone feels sorry to see animals killed; but it
is not meaningless — we don’t waste anything.”(15-year old high school student, Taiji).
“Humans, especially Americans, believe people are
the smartest animals and cetaceans the second
smartest. Yet the smartest foul up the sea where
the second-smartest are living. That’s not too smart;
I doubt the whales are that intelligent.”(15-year old high school student, Taiji).
“My father is a whaler, but when my younger
brother saw a dolphin kill, or... a whale landed andflensed, he thought it was really sad. It is a pity tokill anything, but we must separate feelings fromneeds. My father understands that, and he fed us
and many, many other Japanese.”(Teenaged son of unemployed whaling captain, Taiji).
The question of maintaining a traditional food culture
is one that affects many groups, including immigrants to
new homelands. But in the whaling regions of Japan, it hasvery profound significance.
“Local people’s preference is for whale sashimi(sliced, raw meat) and older people can’t eat raw
beef. People here miss whale sashimi and boiled
whale intestine; they used to entertain with thesefoods. Now, with these customary party foods
missing, it’s no fun to entertain. People complain

to me about the meat available (the boiled meat
scraped from the bones).... It’s cruel to deny us
whalemeat.”(Supermarket manager, Taiji).
“There is no intention of giving up whaling here;
there is a supply of pilot whales and we willcontinue to buy it — despite the rising cost — tomaintain our food culture and so that tourists cancontinue to eat whalemeat. It’s a human rights
problems, not animal rights. No one has a right todeprive us of our best protein source.”(Town official, Taiji).
“We eat all of the whale and that is how we show
our respect for it. Westerners don’t appreciate ourreligion and customs and don’t know how much
we love and respect whales.”(Music composer, Taiji).
“Our food culture is different, so don’t attack us
and treat us like inferiors. Human population will
increase and we will have to utilize resources, and
we Japanese in Taiji feel that whale and othermarine resources must be properly researched andmanaged.”(15-year old junior high school student, Taiji).
“Some people criticise us for eating whale meat.
But it’s none of their business. I never criticize otherpeople for what they eat.”(Former whaler, 27 years experience, Taiji).
There are now, as a consequence of the imposition of
the whaling moratorium, groups in Japan dedicated to the
support of Japanese food culture, and opposed to the IWC
moratorium. Such groups are active, e.g. in fund-raising tosupport cetacean research and through educational
programs, especially with young people, and in raisingnational awareness of the issues involved. They appear tobe effective, judging by the amount of funds raised(Appendix IV) and by the improved understanding imparted
to school children (Appendix VII and VIII).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Throughout this report, emphasis has been placed on
evaluating the impacts of the moratorium in theappropriate social, economic and cultural context. With
respect to the individuals most severely impacted by thewhaling moratorium, namely the whalers themselves, itis necessary to consider their situation within the context
of Japan’s labor market as a whole. Although not as
serious as in other OECD countries, Japan’s
unemployment problem has worsened in the last decade.
In “Japan: An Economic Survey” (1986), OECD findsthat “the labor market situation for older workers isparticularly slack”, and older workers, especially those
aged 54-64, find few vacancies and face long-term
unemployment (OECD 1986: 77-79).
Further, older whalers have lost their employment intheir peak income years. As the statements from whalers

38

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
attest, for many men these are years of heavy financial
obligation, especially when their children are in or soon toenter university.
The burden of long-term unemployment weighs
especially heavily on individuals in a country where thefive-day work week is uncommon, paid annual leaves areshorter than in most European countries, there is more overtime work and low absenteeism, and workers must labour
longer on average to maintain their living standards. By
way of comparison, Japanese workers average 2,152 hours
per work year, significantly longer than in major western
nations like the United Kingdom (1,938 hours), UnitedStates (1,898), Germany (1,613), and France (1,657)(OECD 1986: 78-79).
From the standpoint of employer-employee relations,the moratorium also strikes directly at a cultural system
which favors ‘life-time’ employment:“The importance of attachment to the firm in Japanis such that employers seek to avoid sacking theirworkers; equally, the fact that it is impossible totransfer in mid-career, from one enterprise toanother generates loyalty.” (OECD 1986: 68.)
However, long-term employment with pelagic whaling
firms appears to have given former pelagic whalers
somewhat more restricted social networks than men
engaged in small-type coastal whaling. By contrast, smalltype coastal whalers are believed to have a wider range ofcontacts ashore that might allow a greater variety ofpotential alternative employment opportunities than areavailable to pelagic whalers. If true, the moratorium hassuddenly turned pelagic whalers’ networks from a sourceof personal pride to an economic liability. It makes amockery of their career identification and commitment,
long service and highly developed, specialized skills. And,
despite consistency with Japanese cultural ideals, these
new circumstances place pelagic whalers at a distinct
disadvantage when released from their profession andforced to readjust and seek out new employment, andindeed, a new way of life.
The IWC ban on commercial whaling has caused severe
impacts on the lives of Japanese whalers and their families.
As earlier described, unemployment or unstable
employment, reduced income, change of work, loss of status
and change in life-style are causing considerable stress towhalers and their families.
However, the situation may become even more severe.
Many laid-off whalers received compensations from thecompany and the government last year, and most havesome savings. Governmental compensation will beterminated shortly and the whaler’s savings will eventually
be depleted. Further deterioration of health, spirit, family
ties, friendship, and overall quality of life among whalers
appears to be certain if an extension of the current ban on
whaling continues. Given the nature of the rural andremote communities where whalers live and their ages
and the kinds of professional skills they are specialized inand hence limited by, the employment situation for themis unlikely to improve. Without whaling there appears to
be little hope for these people to recover their steady
employment and the quality of life they used to enjoy.
It should be clear that until the moratorium andassociated campaigns opposing whaling, Japan’s whalers
had thought themselves engaged in an honorable
profession with a long tradition. But now they have beencondemned outside of Japan as parties to an essentially‘immoral’, ‘inhumane’, and sometimes ‘criminal’
enterprise. The moratorium seems to them arbitrary, andthe condemnation an expression of cultural ignorance, andethnocentric bias, if not crude racism. They also suspect ameasure of economic jealousy on the part of Americanand other western countries lies behind this attack on theirindustry. The dishonesty, misrepresentation and unmerited
dishonour represented by such labelling and suspicions
makes their situation all the more stressful.
The socio-economic impact of the whaling
moratorium is felt throughout the whaling towns. Town
officials and leaders expressed great concern about thebusiness failures, the loss of economic prospects foryoung people, and those now forced to seek new business
opportunities, the out-migration of workers and thesplitting of families that the economic consequences of
the whaling ban have recently caused.
Whereas in the western industrial countries suchmatters are purely secular, in the Japanese context there
are important spiritual implications to be considered whensocial institutions begin to unravel.
A complex of values placing stress on sustaining
family, community and national ideals underlies
contemporary Japanese religious life. In the context ofthe coastal whaling communities, ceremonial and religious
observances express the great importance of continuing
whaling as the main subsistence activity. The present-day
whalers are custodians of a lengthy historical tradition,and failure “to maintain whaling is to fail in a central
obligation toward the ancestors (which) is a central
message of much of the ceremonial of these towns”(Hardacre and Manderson 1988: 11). Professors Hardacre
and Manderson have further explored the importance ofcontinued coastal whaling in the context of Japanesesocial, symbolic, ceremonial and religious life, and thefollowing section draws heavily upon their perceptive
analysis. They point out that distinctive ideas about space
and time shape the social and cultural life of Japanesecommunities; a preoccupation with the four seasons
structures religious observances that in agriculturalcommunities focus on the annual cycle of rice growing
and harvesting more especially.
In Japanese whaling communities, however, the fishingseason for whale species, rather than the rhythms of therice cycle, is the most important influence on the structureof time. The fishing seasons for whale are accompanied byceremonial observances for boat and crew. Ritual connected39IWC/41/21

with whaling dominates temple and shrine ceremonial life
throughout the year.
“It begins at the New Year with... ritual purificationof boat and crew by the Shinto priest of the local
tutelary shrine, renewal of the ‘boat souls’ enshrined
under the main mast, group pilgrimage by the crew
to local shrines (including pilgrimage on board thewhaling boat...), as well as ceremonial meals hosted
by the boat owner for the crew, at which whale meatis consumed to seal agreements about the crew’s
division of labor during the New Year....” (ibid:
12)
Whale memorial services (kujira kuyô), a distinctive
Buddhist observance, and parallel memorial rites for spiritsof the ancestors, both similarly aim to console the souls of
whales that have been killed as well as the souls of whalers
lost at sea. The prayers recited at these ceremonies seek
peace for the whale and human souls and collective
repentance for the unavoidable sacrifice required by thesesubsistence pursuits. This ritual therefore treats animal andhuman souls identically.
“Both are spoken of as ‘hungry ghosts’ (gaki),beings who must depend upon ritual acts of feedingby a Buddhist priest in order to achieve rebirth in ahigher level of existence. These souls remain
intimately connected with humanity and depend
upon human beings for this symbolic nurturance,
just as the human community depends for its
sustenance upon whaling.” (ibid: 13)
The New Year and all-souls (O-bon) ceremonial acts
are continued at other occasions throughout the year, when
the first catch of the season is celebrated by a widespreadsharing of meat throughout the whaling community, andby feasts held throughout the whaling season to celebrate
successful catches. The ceremonies, whether at temples or
shrines (on boats, at homes or elsewhere) and the othercommunal celebrations express locally distinctive traditions,
yet importantly, elements of a common whaling culture thatwhalers and many others in Japan view as distinctively
Japanese.
“Whale meat is offered on the private altars of
this community precisely because it is the foodthat most uniquely symbolizes the source ofcommunal solidarity. Because Ayukawa’s socialand economic organization is so dependent upon
whaling, whale meat is particularly appropriate as
an offering to the community’s tutelary deities,
enshrined at the Jumano and Koganeyama Shrines.
After it has been offered to the deities by being
placed on an altar, this whale meat is taken down
and served in the communal meal shared by theparishioners, and putatively, by the deities aswell....
“... The idea is that the deities impart their own
potency to the food offered upon their altars, andthat potency is then imparted to parishioners. Thisinfusion of human beings with the sacrality ofdeities is accomplished here by the eating of whale
meat, and hence this meat becomes an important
symbolic vehicle for continuing reciprocity
between human and divine realms in the local
world view.”(Manderson and Hardacre 1989: 24)
Increasingly Japanese people are coming to view thedisappearance of whaling as a loss for Japan and Japaneseculture, and attempts by non-Japanese to impose their alienpoints of view as an uncalled for attack on their history,
culture and religious beliefs.
It must be remembered that the smaller whaling towns
derived a great deal of their social and economic vitality
from whaling, despite the presence of an active inshore
fishery component. Data presented in this report indicate
the recent stagnation and over-capacity of the local inshore
fishery, and the increasingly important role the whale fisherycame to play in maintaining the viability of the Fisheries
Cooperative Association as a major community institution.
The ban on whaling seriously compromises the future
existence of the cooperatives and consequently the
economic viability of the large number of self-employedfishermen and marine-product-related small businesses inthese vulnerable communities. But the social destruction is
not caused by economic failure alone.
Consequently, in this report, the destructive impacts ofthe moratorium upon the social, religious and cultural lifeof these small whaling communities has also been detailed.
Insofar as whaling underlies both strong local and national
traditions, the contraction of whaling to its present
endangered occupational status is a cause of more than just
local concern. However, obviously the greatest impact andconcern is felt locally, in the whaling communities, becauseof the immediate socio-economic, emotional, and culturalconsequences which are seen to threaten the very existenceof the individual, family and community itself.
A recent scholarly study of the impact of the moratorium
in the two whaling towns, Ayukawa and Taiji, detailed theeffects of loss of whaling on identity, social relations, thehuman-environmental relationship and religious andceremonial life. The study concluded that these disruptions
confuse and compromise the basis of social, symbolic andreligious relations such that in the absence of any practicalalternatives “the fabric of social relationships begins tounravel. The end of whaling means the end of these towns
as viable communities.” (Hardacre and Manderson 1988:
28). This report provides additional information thatwholely supports that serious conclusion.
END NOTES
1
Table 6 indicates a harvest of 128 pilot whales rather than the 98 provided
for in the small-type coastal whale fishery. The reason for this apparent
discrepancy is that the small-type fishery allocation is made by the federal
authorities for pilot whale stocks in northern waters, but an additional,
prefecturally-regulated fishery takes place in southern waters.
2¥135 = US $1.00 (January 1989)

40

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit

TABLES
Table 1:

Employment data, Nippon Kyôdô Hogei, 1976-1987
Number of Employees:

Retired:Left employ:

Vessels

Land

Vessels

Land

Vessels

1 976

1466

97

—

1 977

1456

97

2

10

1 978

1300

95

3

156

2

Annual payroll(¥ Millions)

Land

—

1,174
2,074
4,998

1979

679

87

1

621

11

3,756

1980

668

88

3

11

3

3,594

1981

665

83

2

3

5

6

3,742

1982

664

83

5

2

9

5

4,200

1983

651

81

5

2

13

2

4,081

1984

636

75

10

2

15

6

4,236

1985

591

65

29

2

45

10

3,966

1986

541

55

26

2

50

10

3,679

1987*

464

43

68

9

77

12

3,989

*The company closed down in November 1987.
Source: Nippon Kyôdô Hogei company records
Table 2:

Economic situation of Nippon Hogei (large-type whaling company) 1976-87
Catcher Boats

Year

Land
Stations

Wages &
Bonuses(¥ Millions)

N
o.
No.

Tonnage

1976

2

1,035.60

2

408

1977

3

1,466.51

2

646

1978

3

1,466.51

2

550

1979

3

1,466.51

2

714

1980

3

1,466.51

2

856

1981

3

1,466.513841

Capital Losses(¥ Millions)

6

Losses Due to:

Wakkanai facility closed

1982

3

1,825.40

3

692

8

Scrapped 399.44 ton catcher boat

1983

2

1,189.24

3

676

11

Scrapped 636.26 ton catcher boat

1984

2

1,189.24

3

603

1985

2

1,189.24

3

681

1986

2

1,189.24

3

574

1987

2

1,189.24

3

591

113

*

*Losses due to closing land facilities at Ayukawa (¥39 Million), Ogasawara (¥42 Million) and Taiji (¥9 Million) andscrapping two catcher boats (431 and 758 tons; ¥23 Million)
Source: Nihon Hogei company records

41IWC/41/21

Table 3: Employment data, Nihon Hogei, 1976-87

Table 5: Employment data, Nittô Hogei, 1976-1988

Number of Employees

Number of Employees

Year

Vessels

AnnualPayroll(¥ Millions)

Year

23

408

1976

Land
full-time

part-time

Vessels76

Land
full-time

part-time72

20

AnnualPayroll(¥ Millions)
406

1976

129

1977

125

100

23

646

1977

76

72

17

50

1978

109

96

12

550

1978

77

72

14

461

1979

100

83

13

714

1979

74

68

17

588

1980

93

80

9

856

1980

74

66

21

671

1981

92

80

9

841

1981

61

66

16

723

1982

84

72

11

692

1982

61

64

14

801

1983

75

72

13

676

1983

59

62

14

755

1984

61

52

31

603

1984

54

62

14

752

1985

61

52

40

681

1985

54

60

12

677

1986

56

51

43

574

1986

51

60

12

762

1987

48

47

31

591

1987

51

59

11

732

1988

0

5

0

The whaling division of the company closed down in
December 1987. Out of a total of 95 employees, 82 losttheir jobs, three retired or resigned, and ten were transfered
to non-whaling sections of the company.
Source: Nihon Hogei company records

The workforce of 121 (110 fulltime and 11 part-time
employees) in 1987 is currently deployed as follows: 116(105 fulltime and 11 part-time employees) lost their jobs,
out of which number 13 employees retired or resigned, afurther 31 and 20 finding fulltime employment on vessels
and land respectively, and another nine in part-time landbased work. Forty-three former workers are still seeking
employment, of which number 13 are currently inretraining programs.
Source: Nittô Hogei company records

Table 4: Economic situation of Nittô Hogei (large-type whaling company), 1976-1987
Catcher Boats

Year

No.

Tonnage

Land Stations

Wages &
Bonuses(¥ Millions)

1976

3

1,519.29

2

406

1977

3

1,519.29

2

504

1978

3

1,519.29

2

461

1979

3

1,519.29

2

588

1980

3

1,519.29

2

671

1981

3

1,519.29

3

723

1982

2

1,089.40

3

801

1983

2

1,089.40

3

755

1984

2

1,089.40

3

752

1985

2

1,089.40

3

677

1986

2

1,089.40

3

762

1987*

2

1,089.40

3732

Capital Losses(¥ Millions)

Losses Due to:85

Closing Kiritappu land

22

Scrapping 429.89 ton catcher boat

197

**

* The whaling division of the company closed in December 1987.
** Losses due to closing land stations at Osawa (¥75.88 Million), Ogasawara (¥64.76 Million) and Wada (¥2.73 Million)
and scrapping two catcher boats (471 and 619 tons; ¥54.05 Million)
Source: NittÙ Hogei Company Records
42Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Table 6:

Small-type coastal whaling production statistics, 1982-88
1982

Minke Whale

324

Baird's Beaked60

Pilot Whale

85

1983

1984

1986

1987

290

367

1985
327

311

304

37

38

40

40

40

125

160

62

29

128

2

7

Killer Whale
Cuvier's Beaked57

1

Total (no.)

469

453

565

429

382

344

Meat

378,800

358,700

550,840

499,330

465,500

489,900

Blubber

83,400119,000

191,420

191,420

177,900

162,600

Minke Oil

192

2,800

Other

38,60032,75057,00045,20024,10021,250Total (kg)503,600

510,450

799,540

735,950

667500673,750

Meat

127,400

86,40099,000106,200

109,300

107,800

200,063

Blubber

12,20073,30082,70089,10090,100103,900

172,476

Beaked Oil

Pilot

1988

97,000

6,700

4,300

16,30017,300Other

19,60018,10028,10030,70022,10055,200Total (kg)

256,200

184,500

214,100

242,300

238,800

266,900

Meat

47,80054,50082,60022,50012,20066,108

Blubber

29,70041,90066,50016,8008,200

53,138372,539

Oil

7,000

1,600

1,800

Other

11,80015,000

5,100

9,000

3,860

Total (kg)96,300113,000

156,000

48,30024,260119,2414,800 **

15,913 **

1,330 *
Total Production (kg)856,100

809,280

1,169,640

1,026,550

953,360

940,650

507,693* Cuvier’s Beaked Whale; **Killer Whale
1st column: Figures denote number of whales taken. 2nd, 3rd & 4th column: Figures denote kilograms.
Source: Japan Small-type Whaling Association

Table 7:

Employment status of former large-type whalers, 1988

Employed on permanent base:

23

Mariculture:

6

Cargo boat and tanker:

5

Fishing and small-type whaling:

2

Other boats:

2

Company's Food Processing Division2

Relative's business:

2

Other:

3

Unknown:1

Temporarily or occasionally employed:

15

Fisheries inspection boat:

7

Mariculture:

4

Other:

4

Unemployed (including 4 who are ill):

42

Dead:

1

Unknown:1

Total:

82

Source: J. Takahashi interviews43IWC/41/21

Table 8:

Employment status of former large-type whalers, 1988

ID# (Boat Crews) OCCUPATION
1
H
2
Cp
3
1M
4
EC
5
E
6
E
7
Com
8
SO
9
B
10
DH
11
DH
12
DH
13
DH
14
DH
15
DH
16
DH
17
DH
18
MO
19
Ck
20
Ck
21
Com
22
SO
23
H
24
Cp
25
1M
26
2M
27
EC
28
E
29
E
30
Com
31
SO
32
B
33
DH
34
DH
35
DH
36
DH
37
DH
38
DH
39
DH
40
MO
41
Ck
42
Ck
43
E
44
SO
45
Ck
46
F
47
F
48
F
49
FM

AGE
49
57
45
56
45
50
55
50
55
48
51
47
40
50
52
43
37
45
38
51
42
49
55
42
41
55
49
48
50
49
48
48
44
55
52
48
43
36
41
47
-

EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Unemployed
F: Domestic cargo ship
F: Domestic cargo ship (B)T: Truck Driver
T: Steelwork shop
F: Domestic cargo ship
T: Fisheries inspection boat
Unemployed
T: Fisheries inspection boat
Unemployed
T: Fisheries inspection boat
T: Mariculture
Unemployed
F: Taxi driver (?)
F: Tug boat
Unemployed
Unemployed
F: Fisheries inspection boat
Unemployed
T: Fishing boat's (trawler) cook
Unemployed
Unemployed
Unemployed
F: Harbor pilot (#24 has a college degree)
F: STCW company
T: Fisheries inspection boat
Unemployed
Unemployed
Unemployed
Unemployed: Studying for navigator's licence
Unemployed: Preparing to open a noodle shop
Unemployed
T: Fisheries inspection boat
T: Fisheries inspection boat
F: Plasterer (former occupation)
Unemployed
Unemployed
Unemployed
F: Domestic tanker
F: Domestic tanker
Unemployed
Unemployed: studying cooking
Unemployed: ill
F: Manager at wife's restaurant
Unemployed
F: Mariculture
Unemployed
F: Mariculture
Unemployed44

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
ID# (Boat Crews) OCCUPATION
50
F
51
F
52
F
53
F
54
F
55
F
56
F
57
F
58
F
59
F
60
F
61
F
62
F
63
F
64
F
65
F
66
F
67
F
68
F
69
F
70
F
71
F
72
F
73
F
74
F
75
O
76
O
77
O
78
O
79
O
80
O
81
O
82
O

AGE
-

EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Unemployed
Died
T: Boilerrman at municipal hospital
Unemployed: ill
F: Mariculture
Unemployed: being trained to be a plumber
Unemployed: being job trained
Unemployed
Unemployed
T: Mariculture
Unemployed: failed in many attempts
F: Same company's food processing division
Unemployed
Unemployed: ill
F: Same company's food processing division
T: Mariculture
Unemployed
Unemployed: has a barber's license but wants to work in mariculture
Unemployed: there is a chance that his relative might hire him
Unemployed
T: Security guard, etc.
?: left town
Unemployed: ill
Unemployed
Unemployed
F: Mariculture
F: Maritime product distributor (?)
F: ?
F: Hired by a relative (left town)
F: Mariculture
T: Mariculture
Unemployed
F: Mariculture and STCW

Abbreviations:H=
HarpoonerCp =Captain
1M =First Mate
2M =Second MateE=
EngineerEC =Chief Engineer
Com =Communications Officer
SO =Sonar Operator
B=
Bos’n (Boatswain)
DH =Deck Hand
MO =Machine Operator
F=
FlenserFM =Flensing MasterO=
Other (Office Manager and/or clerk)
F=
Fully EmployedT=
Temporarily or Occasionally Employed
Source: J. Takahashi interviews45

IWC/41/21

Table 9:Company

Changes in small-type coastal whaling employment, 1986-89
1986

1987

1988

1989

Vessel

Land

Total

Vessel

Land

Total

Vessel

Land

Total

Vessel

Land

Total

A

8

0

8

7

1

8

6

1

7

8

2

10

B

8

3

11

8

1

9

0

1

1

0

0

0

C

7

3

10

7

1

8

0

1

1

0

1

1

D

7

2

9

7

1

8

7

1

8

7

1

8

E

8

6

14

8

1

9

8

1

9

0

1

1

F

14

8

22

14

8

22

6

3

9

7

3

10

G

5

1

6

5

1

6

5

1

6

5

1

6

H

8

3

11

8

1

9

6

0

6

8

0

8

TOTALS

65

26

91

64

15

79

38

9

47

35

9

44

No. of
Vessels
operating996

Source: Japan Small-type Whaling Association

46

5

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Table 10:
ID#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49

Employment status of small-type whalers, 1988
OCCUPATION
Ck
E
F
DH
DH
E
Cp
H
Cp
DH
E
DH
DH
H
DH
F
H
Cp
E
DH
Ck
DH
CH
F
H
Cp
E
DH
DH
E
Ck
Cp
H
E
DH
B
DH
E
Ck
H
O
B
E
F
F
F
E
F
Cp

AGE
55
34
41
43
40
61
51
59
65
38
37
43
40
51
35
54
47
35
44
58
59
35
26
65
48
41
53
49
35
32
32
62
59
58
47
56
48
33
60
60
53
49
58
53
55
51
46
20
40

WHALING: 1988
ParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipated
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
ParticipatedParticipated
No
No
No
No
No
No
ParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedNo
No
ParticipatedParticipatedNo
ParticipatedNo
No
ParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedNo
ParticipatedParticipated

47

EMPLOYMENT STATUS
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
Retired
F: Land survey office
F: Same whaling company
F: Cook (brother's shop)
F: Same whaling company
F: Construction (in-law's)
F: Mariculture boat
T: Day laborer (left town)
F: Same whaling company
F: Same whaling company
T: Fishing boat
Unemployed
T: Construction laborer
T: Fishing boat?
Unemployed: ill
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
Unemployed
T: Inspection boat
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
T: Mariculture
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
T: Dock, construction, fishing boats, mariculture, etc.
T: Food delivery (at daughter's shop)
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*
T: Small fishing
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company*

IWC/41/21
ID#
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75

OCCUPATION
DH
E
B
O
O
B
Cp
DH
DH
DH
H
O
E
Ck
Cp
B
DH
DH
H
DH
H
Cp
E
E
Ck
O

AGE
53
54
41
40 (f)
26
50
30
48
40
44
61
57 (f)
54
46
42
56
53
48
65
48
-

WHALING: 1988
No
No
ParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedParticipatedNo
No
ParticipatedNo
ParticipatedNo
ParticipatedParticipatedNo
No
ParticipatedNo
Participated
No
No
No
No
ParticipatedAbbreviations:H=
HarpoonerCp =CaptainB=
Bos’n (Boatswain)
DH =Deck hand
E=
Engineer and/or communications technician
Ck =
Cook
F
=
FlenserO=
Other (managerial and/or clerical worker)(f)=FemaleF=
Fully or regularly employedT=
Temporarily or irregularly employed
U=
Unemployed*=
Engaged in mariculture in addition to whaling
Source: J. Takahashi interviews

48

EMPLOYMENT STATUS
T: Samll fishing
T: Samll fishing
F: Same whaling company*
F: Same whaling company
F: Same whaling company
T: Small fishing
F: Same whaling company
T: Small fishing
T: Factory, small fish
T: Fish boat, small fish
Same whaling company
Unemployed
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
T: Temp. work in Osaka
F: Same whaling company
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
T: Small fishing
Unemployed
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
T: Small fishing
U: Laid off, Dec. 88
T: Dock, fishing boat, food processing, etc.
Fishing boat
T: Small fishing
T: Small fishing
F: Same whaling company*

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Table 11:Age composition of small-type coastal whalers’ workforce, April 1986
Working on:

Employees Ages
(Years)

Vessels

Land

Younger than 20

0

0

20-30

7

2

9

30-40

18

3

21

40-45

12

4

16

40-50

6

7

13

50-55

10

7

17

Total
0

Over 55

12

3

15

Total

65

26

91

Source: Japan Small-type Whaling Association
Table 12:

Employment status of small-type whalers, Abashiri, December 1988

WhalerAge

No. years as
whalerJob

When laid off

Present situation

No. ofdependents

1

55

2

34

14

cook

Nov, 88

unemployed1

15

deck-hand

Nov, 88

unemployed

5

3

47

4

34

13

flenser

Nov, 88

unemployed4

20

deck-hand

Nov, 88

part-time

3

5

31

23

deck-hand

Nov, 88

part-time

3

6

61

7

engineerNov, 88

part-time

1

7

51

10

captain

Nov, 88

unemployed

2

8

59

40

harpooner

Nov, 88

unemployed

1

9

65

39

captain

June, 88

part-time

1June, 88

employed

2

Continued to be employed

0

10

38

14

deck-hand

11

37

15

engineer

12

43

8

deck-hand

13

40

8

deck-handJune, 88

employed

3

Continued to be employed

4

14

51

4

harpooner

June, 88

employed

3

15

35

8

deck-hand

Nov, 87

employed

1

16

54

34

flenserJune, 88

part-time

0

17

55

28

boat owner

—

—

3

18

51

33

office work

Dec, 87

unemployed

3

19

34

10

boat owner

—

—

3

Source: M. Iwasaki interviews49IWC/41/21

Table 13:

Redemption of discount coupons obtained from Shingu merchants by Taiji customers, 196372 and 1981-88
OSEIBO (end of year)

Individuals from
Taiji cashingcouponsOCHÛGEN (mid-summer)

Percent of
Customers from Individuals fromhouseholds
Taiji as percent of
Taiji cashingcashing coupons
all customers
coupons

Percent of
Customers fromhouseholds
Taiji as percent ofcashing coupons
all customers

1963

352

31.6

2.0

243

21.8

2.3

1964

262

23.5

1.6

285

25.6

1.8

1965

613

50.5

2.8

354

29.1

2.1

1966

351

28.9

1.5

537

44.2

3.1

1967

366

30.1

1.7

320

26.3

2.1

1968

206

17.0

1.1

252

20.7

2.0

1969

334

27.5

2.0

256

21.1

2.0

1970

660

47.2

3.1

567

41.4

3.4

1971

542

39.6

2.4

465

34.0

2.9

1972

351

25.6

2.4

361

26.4

2.5

1981

412

27.7

2.6

126

8.5

1.4

1982

224

15.1

1.6

124

8.3

1.9

1983

213

14.3

1.8

N.D.

N.D.

N.D.

1984

200

13.4

1.8

113

7.6

1.8

1985

173

11.6

1.5

105

7.1

1.3

1986

124

8.3

1.8

107

7.2

1.8

1987

117

7.9

1.6

130

8.7

1.7

1988

238

16.0

1.9

74

5.0

1.6

Source: Taiji Town Office records

50Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Table 14:Meat prices, Taiji fish market and retail stores, 1985-1989
Unit Price

Source (Date)

Bottlenosed dolphin¥ 40,000/carcass

Kinan (13-11-87)

White spotted dolphin¥ 10,000/carcass (50-60kg)

Yomiuri (29-10-88)

White spotted dolphin¥ 300/kg (wholesale)

Yomiuri (6-10-86)¥ 300-350/kg

Kishu Shinpu (14-12-88)¥ 100-300/kg

Sankei (8-12-88)

Striped dolphin¥ 250-300/kg (wholesale)
Minami Kishu(11-1-89)

Dolphin¥ 800/kg (retail)

Grampus¥ 68,000/carcass (4m long)¥ 2,280/kg (sashimi-retail)Sankei (21-12-88)¥ 1,800/kg (red meat-wholesale)

Kinan (13-5-88)¥ 3,000-10,500/kg (onomi-wholesale)

Kinan (13-5-88)¥ 3,980-6,000/kg (retail)Kinan (13-5-88)¥ 1,000+/kg

Sankei (8-5-88)¥ 1,500/kg (red meat-wholesale)

Mainichi (1-1-88)¥ 4,000/kg (onomi-wholesale)

Mainichi (1-1-88)¥ 5,000/kg (onomi)

Asahi (21-1-88)¥ 1,500/kg (red meat)

Minami Kishu (22-1-88)¥ 4,000/kg (onomi)

Minami Kishu (22-1-88)

Pilot whale¥ 5,000/kg (onomi)

Asahi (13-10-87)¥ 800-1,400/kg (red meat)

Asahi (13-10-87)¥ 500/kg (wholesale)

Sankei (9-1-85)¥ 600/kg (wholesale)

Yomiuri (9-1-85)

Source: Newspapers on file, Taiji Town Office
Table 15:

Table 16:Monthly gross sales of retailfishmonger, Ayukawa, before andafter zero-catch quota for minke whale

Sales

1987

1988

Percentage
Change 1987
to 1988

April

7,501,470

3,228,220-56.96May

5,737,720

3,246,860-43.41June

3,798,165

2,533,190-33.30Total

17,037,355

9,008,270-47.13

Source: After Bestor 1989: Table 1

Sizes of retail and wholesale
enterprises in Oshika Town, 1988

Number of
employees

Number ofbusinesses

Number ofbusinesses
as % of total

1

60

34.3

2

68

38.9

3

25

14.3

4

10

5.7

5

7

4.0

6

1

10-30

4

Total

175

Source: After Bestor 1989: Table 2

51

2.8
100.0

IWC/41/21

Table 17:

Commissions earned on sale of whale products and other fishery products, Oshika-cho
Maritime Wholesale Market, 1984-87

Commission on whale
products (¥ Millions)

Commission on other fisheryproducts (¥ Millions)

Total Commissions(¥ Millions)

Whale Commissions aspercent of total commissions

1 98 4

10.4697.318

17.787

58.86

1985

8.780

9.156

17.93648.95

1 98 612.517

10.55623.073

54.25

1987

21.7065.855

27.501

78.76

Average

13.3688.221

21.58961.92

Source: After Bestor 1989: Table 6

Table 18:

Gross fishery sales at Oshika-cho Maritime Wholesale Market, 1984-87
Whale-product sales(¥ Millions)

Other fishery sales(¥ Millions)

Total Sales(¥ Millions)

Whale-product sales
as percent of total sales

1984

348.967

190.407539.374

64.70

1985

292.677

253.709546.386

53.57

1986

417.253

272.339689.592

60.51

1987

723.538

193.177916.715

78.93

Average445.609227.408

673.017

66.21

Source: After Bestor 1989: Table 5

Table 19:
Year

Average wholesale price of whale meat at Oshika-cho Maritime Wholesale Market 1978-87
Price/kg

Year

Price/kg

1978¥ 671.10

1983¥ 768.95

1979¥ 773.53

1984¥ 784.18

1980¥ 853.92

1985¥ 1,100.47

1981¥ 763.47

1986¥ 1,290.88

1982¥ 706.51

1987¥ 1,515.83

N.B. Figures obtained by dividing gross sales by gross weight sold
Source: After Bestor 1989: Table 3

Table 20:

Revenues from ice sales, Oshika Fishery Co-operative Association, 1984-87
Ice sales for whaling-related
Ice sales for otherpurposes (¥ Millions)purposes (¥ Millions)

Total ice sales(¥ Millions)

Whaling-related ice sales aspercent of total ice sales

1984

20.8387.321

28.15974.00

1 98 518.0108.870

26.880

67.00

1986

14.61317.15431.767

46.00

1987

13.22424.55737.781

35.00

Average

16.67114.47631.147

53.52

Source: After Bestor 1989: Table 752

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Table 21:

Revenues of Wada Town Fishery Co-operative, 1984-86

INCOME SOURCE
Vehicle leasing
Boxes, materials
Land/facilities rentals
Commissions from
Whaling sources
Total
Whaling-derived revenue
as percent of
total market revenue

1984¥ Thousands
106.0083.10
3,427.24

1985¥ Thousands
472.34119.803,208.18

1986¥ Thousands
743.6090.20
3,577.26

8,771.88

19,413.28

15,526.35

12,388.22

23,213.59

19,937.42

70.80

83.60

77.90

Source: Annual Reports, Wada Machi Gyogyô Kumiai
Table 22:

Revenues from whaling contributed to Wada Town Fishery Cooperative

Revenues(¥ Millions)

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

8.77

19.41

15.53

2.00

2.20

Source: Annual Reports, Wada Machi Gyogyô Kumiai and Gaibô Hogei
Table 23:

Declining contribution by whalers to Taiji town tax revenues and increasing town debt, 19621986
1962-671978(average)

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

Town population

4,639

4,800 4,791 4,539 4,661 4,618 4,584 4,542 4,314 4,443

No. of whalers

192*

75***

60

59

66

55

66

55

55

54

No. of whalers as percent of town population

4.8

1.6

1.3

1.3

1.4

1.2

1.4

1.2

1.3

1.2

Town total tax revenues (¥ Millions)8.705**

70.48 65.0 76.33 78.72 82.44 90.80 95.43 108.90—

Taxes paid by whalers (¥ Millions)5.821**

10.47 4.53

7.63

7.82

8.0

6.54

3.84

8.19

12.27

Whalers taxes as percent of total tax revenues

66.9**

14.8

9.9

9.9

9.7

7.2

4.0

7.5

—

Accumulated town debt (¥ Millions)—586 600.5 613

748

867 1,017 1,085 1,095 1,270

6.9* Range from 170-268 over 1962-7 period** Based on 1966 and 1967 data only***In 1977, due to gradual decline in pelagic whaling, three whaling companies joined to form one single company.
Source: Taiji Town Office
Appendix I

THE DISTRIBUTION OF WHALE MEAT BY-PRODUCT FROM 1988 ANTARCTICSCIENTIFIC RESEARCHINTRODUCTION

However, the supply of meat from research activities
is severely limited; 550 tons of good quality red meat, and578 tons of secondary quality meat and viscera, whichquantity represents 10 percent1 of the quantity produced
during the last season of commercial whaling (1986-87).
Data on the consumption of whale meat in Japan, collectedby the Prime Minister’s Office, indicated that over theprevious four years, eighty-five percent of consumption
occurred in twenty (out of forty-seven) prefectures.
However, in order to meet the requirement of a fully
rational utilization of whale product, it was necessary thatthe distribution system be both fair to all consumers and

The International Convention for the Regulation of
Whaling provides for the rational utilization of whale byproducts from research activities. In the Japanese context,
this rational utilization necessarily involves distributing theedible whale products that have for centuries been an
integral part of the Japanese diet and food culture.
Furthermore, the government believes that a more universal
rationality requires that the high cost of the research on
whales (¥1,350 million) be offset by selling the edible whale
products so that the interested public pay some of the costof this research.

53

IWC/41/21

also accord with Japanese trade laws and customarybusiness practices. In order to meet these stringent
requirements the Institute of Cetacean Research wasrequested to develop an acceptable system for distributing
the meat.
Deciding on the Appropriate Distribution System
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) formed anational committee to recommend a rational distribution
system; this committee was composed of sixteen
prominent scientists, business and government officials
at the rank of director or department head. However, thesesenior-level individuals required the advice of managers(at deputy-director rank) more familiar with market
conditions; thus a twenty-person committee of advisers
was constituted. Several meetings of this committee were
held and priority users were identified. These high-priority
users included, e.g. patients required to eat whale meatfor medical reasons, and school lunch programs where
public funds were used to meet a widely-accepted public
interest.
The committee also developed a policy of waiting forrequests for whale meat to be received, rather thanproactively offering it to former whaling towns, forexample. Another policy was developed to make the
distribution balanced, to avoid any bias toward high-demandareas where whaling was formerly carried out (e.g. in
Kyushu).
Requirement of Japanese Law
When commercial whaling was carried out, the fivewhaling companies handled sales of whalemeat and edible
products. However, with the amalgamation of thesecompanies into one company (due to the contraction of
pelagic whaling in the 1970s) it was necessary to keep the
selling of the meat under the control of company
shareholders in order to avoid conflict with Japanese antimonopoly laws. However, the by-product from Antarctic

Prefecture
Osaka
Tokyo
Fukuoka
Hyogo
Nagasaki
Hokkaido
Ehime
Yamaguchi
Saga
Kanagawa
Hiroshima
OkayamaKumamoto
Miyagi
Aichi
SaitamaTonnage
61.0
59.0
54.4
29.7
20.7
19.2
19.2
18.7
16.6
16.6
15.1
13.1
13.1
12.1
12.1
10.1

research activities is distinct from the product of commercial
whaling and represents a public good, public property ineffect. The most appropriate distribution mechanism is theprefecturally controlled public markets for the good quality
red meat, and directly from the frozen stores to the meat
processors for the secondary meat and viscera (as has been
the practice in the past).
National Distribution Ensured
Public bidding for produce in the open market isrequired by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, in order
to conform to anti-conspiracy laws. However, in order toensure fairness and to prevent resentment that might
compromise the widespread support in Japan for continued
Antarctic research, a ceiling price is imposed, as well as aproportional distribution to the public markets based on the
average of the past four years regional consumption of whale
meat. Thus each of the forty-six prefectures in Japan where
whale meat sales were recorded in the past four years,
received some of the best quality red meat, in comparison
to the commercial distribution in the past where the best
quality meat was principally purchased for markets in Osakaand Kyushu. (See Table 1.)
Meat Processors
It was ascertained that fifty-one meat processing
companies use whale parts for food production. Using theearlier production figures as a guide, it was found that theprocessors’ demand for whale parts was twenty-times
greater than the available supply. However, an equitablesystem has been developed, and the distribution commenced
on February 10; (the red meat distribution occurred overthe period January 10-27, 1989). In the past, whale meat
distribution was accomplished shortly after the antarctic
fleet returned in April, but in 1988, the distribution was
delayed for ten months whilst studies and discussions werecarried out in order to fully rationalize the distribution of
the limited quantity of whale products.

Prefecture
Kyoto
Wakayama
Chiba
Kochi
Aomori
Oita
Shiga
Niigata
Nara
Yamagata
Akita
Kukushima
KagawaMie
Gifu
NaganoTonnage
10.0
9.6
9.1
9.1
7.6
7.6
6.1
5.5
5.5
4.6
4.0
4.0
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5

54

Prefecture
Iwate
Ibaragi
TochigiMiyazaki
Gumma
Ishikawa
Shizuoka
Yamanashi
ShimaneTottori
Tokushima
Kagoshima
ToyamaFukui
Okinawa

Tonnage
2.0
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
—

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
The Price-Setting Mechanism
The cost of whale meat distributed nationally is moreor less set due to the need to raise revenues to support theAntarctic research program. The scientific program costs¥1,350 million and the national government initiallycontributed ¥350 million as a direct subsidy. The remainder
is to be raised from the sale of whale products and frompublic contributions to the research program.
Compared to the last commercial whaling harvest(1986-87), the middleman receives more per unit handled,
as quantities were considerably larger in earlier times;
however, the price paid by consumers is now lower thanfor the earlier commercial catches.
The Institute of Cetacean Research sets the price ceilingfor middlemen, who bid for the meat at the prefectural
markets from two wholesalers. The meat is distributed by
the vessel owner (Kyôdô Senpaku) to the prefectural
markets, to the meat processors, to public institutions (e.g.
hospitals), and to some local governments for use in school
lunch programs and for similar public purposes. The
Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) allows a 5.0 percent
brokerage fee to be charged by Kyôdô Senpaku to cover
distribution and handling costs to prefectural markets. The

ICR nominates a price for Kyôdô Senpaku to sell productto the meat processors, but cannot set the processors’ selling
price as meat processing involves variable costs dependingon the amount of processing required.
The final price charged by retailers cannot be set, as
the Japanese Fair Trade Commission’s rules forbid pricefixing in that manner. However, retailers have been
reminded that they are retailing public property, and that afair margin only is to be charged over their cost from the
middleman. Middlemen are required by law to report prices
charged by their retailer customers, so following an
extensive public education program (the reason for the delay
in instituting the distribution) it is believed the system will
work as intended. Middlemen must report on price level tothe prefectural government and the reporting requirements
are stringent, with any detected irregularities resulting inlower allocations in subsequent years.
END NOTE
1
Antarctic research activities in 1988 collected 273 minke whales,
compared to 1941 minke whales harvested during the last commercial
season. Furthermore, the commercial whalers selected large-sized whales,
whereas the randomly sampled research take was of large, medium andsmaller-sized whales.

Appendix II

WAGES, SUPPLEMENTARY PAY AND BONUS SYSTEM PAID BY SMALL-TYPE WHALEBOAT OPERATOR, TAIJI
Basic salary (hon kyû) plus food costs and supplementalpay (see below)
Retainer salary (yobi kyû) 60 percent of salary when not
actively whaling (excludes foodand supplementary pay)
Bonuses (hakkenryô) - for spotting a whale:- for minke whale:¥10,000- for beaked whale:¥5,000- for pilot whale:¥1,000Bonuses (buai) based on numbers of whales caught(represents 12 percent of profit,
shared according to rank onboard, i.e. harpooner and captainreceive largest shares).
Supplemental pay:bôto teate- for going in chase boat forminke whale (high bonus asdangerous work)
shokumu teate - to harpooner, chief engineer,bo’sun, captain (for remaining on
board)
suichû sagyo- for working in water, diving,kaibô teatebôto hogyô

etc.
- for flensing whales (inHokkaido waters)- for assisting in handling whales

In addition to wages and bonuses, crew receive shares ofmeat: 10kg per person per whale caught during the season.
Boat owner distributes ca. 150kg for community
purposes and a small allotment to each crew member attime of first catch of season (hatsuryô).

RATIONALE FOR WHALE-SPOTTING
BONUS DIFFERENTIALSThe minke whale bonus is highest, because this species
only surfaces for a short time so the spotter must be alertand quick to sight minke, which can’t be seen when thesea is rough. Beaked whale are much easier to spot, as
they stay on the surface for a few minutes, and can be
spotted at a distance of six miles (from the mast barrel at
7m height) as they jump out of the water; minke on theother hand can only be seen up to one mile distant fromthe boat.

55

IWC/41/21

Appendix III

THREE REPORTS:
OBSERVATIONS ON TAIJI ATTITUDES AND DIET AS REFLECTED BY THEIR WHALINGHISTORY
REACTION TO THE WHALING MORATORIUM
ON THE CLAIM THAT WHALE MEAT IS ONLY SERVED AND EATEN IN EXPENSIVERESTAURANTS
C.W. Nicol
Mr. C.W. Nicol, writer, has been a permanent resident of Japan for seventeen years. He is anenvironmental advocate whose conservation views are well known in Japan through his writing,lecturing and broadcasting activities. Mr. Nicol attended Nihon University, Department ofAgriculture (Fisheries) and for several years worked for the Fisheries Research Board of Canada andthe Environmental Protection Service of the Canadian Department of Environment.

OBSERVATIONS ON TAIJI ATTITUDESAND DIET AS REFLECTED BY THEIRWHALING HISTORY

and very insidious.
We are all aware of dietary restrictions placed byreligions. The forbidding of eating pork by Islam, by the
Jewish faith, by Coptic Christians, and the forbidding ofeating of beef by the Hindus. So many, many diet
restrictions, all over the world! Being British-born andraised, I or my family would have been horrified at thethought of eating horse or dog, and, come to that, frogs andsnails. In those days though, I did not hear anybody object
to the whale oil in our margarine.
In the context of the Japanese, it must be appreciated thatthe influence of Buddhism in the country placed dietary
restrictions on the eating of meat from four-legged animals.
The taboo was so strong that the peoples who handled thedisposal of four-legged animals, tanning and so forth, were
so discriminated against that they were made to live in certain
areas and were terribly restricted in their daily and personal
lives. The Japanese government in the last decades has been
doing its best to overcome that ancient prejudice, going so
far as to even ban the use of the words ‘four-legged’ andother vaguely related words on national radio and television.
There was though, at the same time, an ancient hunting
culture in Japan, that still manifests iteself in mountianliving peoples’ traditions, folk tales, hunting and gathering
methods. The eating of deer, wild boar and hare was andstill is very common in the mountains. However, becauseof the Buddhist taboos, wild boar meat was called ‘mountainwhale’ and hares were counted by numerals associated withthe counting of birds.
Whale meat however, was valued highly, and regarded
not as the meat of mammals such as cows, but rather as
fish. The character in the Japanese writing system for whale
is indeed written with a fish radical. Of course, the ancientwhalers were aware the whale was warm-blooded, milkgiving, and that it bore live young, but still it was not taboo
to kill and eat, as it was categorized as a ‘fish’ (i.e. notfour-legged).
During the Edo period, the capital city of the Shogun
was the largest city in the world. There were other large

I first met Taiji men in a whaling ship off the coast of
Canada. The ship was a British-built catcher that had beensold to Japan and renamed ‘17 Kyokuyô Maru’. She wasengaged in coastal whaling out of the Newfoundland port
of Dildo, hunting mostly for fin whales. The ship was
entirely crewed by Japanese, while the whaling station
employed both Canadians and Japanese. It was a joint
Canadian-Japanese venture, with the meat being carefully
graded, frozen and sent to Japan for human food. That wasin 1966.
Sailing aboard this ship I was extremely impressed withthe seamanship, cleanliness, friendliness and pride of theJapanese whaling men. At that time, the gunner, Mr. Shoji
Mineo, said to me;“We Japanese do not have the wide prairies thatyou have in Canada, but we have five times thenumber of people. The seas are our prairies, andwe must take food from the seas to feed ourpeoples.”
There was no doubt that the Japanese, at least the ones
I knew, liked, even preferred, whale meat. Aboard that shipin 1966 whale meat was served at lunch, dinner and late
supper every single day, and I, like the crew, never got
tired of it.
When I sometimes went ashore to see to the training ofassistants who took biological samples from the landed
whales, I was confronted with the food prejudice of locals,
who thought eating whale meat was disgusting... even if
they had never tried it.
Our food preferences are governed very mainly byenvironment, by the upbringing that is a result of thatenvironment, and also by history and tradition... which
again are strongly modified by the environment. It is a
sad fact too, that a lot of prejudice, cultural and racial
prejudice, is manifested by slurs on the diet of anotherpeople. The list of these diet related slurs is very long,56

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limitcities too. With restrictions on the eating of raised animals
such as cattle, sheep and pigs, there was a demand forprotein that could not possibly be satisfied by the mountainhunters and trappers, although small amounts of hare, boar,
deer, pheasant and ducks did get sold. The long andcomplicated coastline of Japan and the rich variety of floraand fauna were utilized to an extent undreamed of inEurope.
The Japanese ate every kind of edible protein from theseas and coasts, and had very many ways of preserving
these foods. Away from the coast, wild mountain herbs,
roots, mushrooms and even grubs and insects suplemented
the diet. However, there was a hunger for protein, and formany areas, the whale became a primary source. In the Edo
period (1603-1867) Taiji supplied both the Shogun’s andthe Emperor’s capitals with dried and salted whale meat,
as well as the markets in Osaka, Wakayama, Shingu andother places that could be reached by sea.
Taiji is uniquely situated to catch whales and other small
cetaceans, being at the tip of a large peninsular. Not far
offshore flows the warm current of the Kuroshio, while there
is cooler water inshore. The headland lookout points werein sight of the migration routes of right whales, sperm
whales, humpback whales, gray whales and other whale
species.
Behind the shoreline, steep hills of dense forest
prevented the cultivation of rice and severely restrictedmovement except by sea. it wasn’t until the Taisho period(1912-1926) that a tunnel was cut through a hill to Taiji toallow anything other than small handcarts land access tothe town. Taiji was isolated except by sea. Even today ittakes longer to reach Taiji from Tokyo than it does to travel
to Hokkaido.
The whaling history in Taiji can be traced back eight
hundred years, but the use of cetaceans for human food in
the Japanese archipelago can be traced back to the Jomon
period (1000-8000 B.C.).
It was in the Edo period that a whaling industry evolved,
using many boats and a work force of about six hundred
men. The whales most sought after were the right whales,
the humpbacks and the grays, although sperm whales andother smaller whales were taken. Large rorquals weregenerally not hunted, with the rare exception of sei or
Bryde’s whales. The Taiji whalers would drive whales intolarge sets of stout rope nets, harpooning and entangling
them, before cutting a hole and passing a rope through theseptum, then finally securing the whale between two boats
with beams of wood over the back and ropes under the belly
for the final lancing and then the long haul back to thevillage.
By far the most valuable product was the meat, of which
every last scraping was used for human food. Blubber was
also eaten, or rendered into oil. The dry blubber biscuits,
produced from rendering the oil from the blubber was also
used as food. Tongue, heart, liver, kidney, stomach wall,
intestines and lungs were boiled and eaten. Cartilage wasalso eaten, as were the gums. Although sinew, baleen, andbone were used in many craft industries, such as armor
making, toy making, and puppet making for example, thegreatest value of the whale was for food, though the oil
was also important as an insecticide applied to rice paddies
in agricultural areas of the nation.
Because of the success of Taiji whaling, and the taxes
and tributes the whalers were able to pay to the government,
other fiefdoms requested the expertise of the Taiji whalers.
Thus Taiji whalers went to Shikoku, to the Goto Islands, to
Iki Island, and north to the Date clan’s ports near Sendai.
They were far more respected and honored than any otherkind of fishermen, and allowed greater freedom of travel
because of it.
However, in the mid-nineteenth century the whalers of
Taiji began to experience lean times. In the 1820s the socalled ‘Japan Grounds’ had been discovered by foreign
whalers, and by the late 1840s there were an estimated seven
hundred foreign whaling ships operating off the coasts ofJapan. America’s large whaling feel was dominant in theregion.
At that time Japan was closed to foreign ships, peoples
and influences, with the only exception being the Dutch
and Chinese who were restricted to the tiny island of
Deshima, Nagasaki. As the coast of Japan is hazardous,
especially in the typhoon season, safe ports were neededby these foreign fleets. At that time shipwrecked ships wereseized by the Shogun’s government, and sailors, whalers
and passengers were interned and sometimes treatedharshly.
It was due to this that a strong whaling-industry lobby
in the United States pressured the American government
into sending a powerful fleet of warships to force Japan toopen to outsiders. There were other reasons, of course, but
a careful reading of the report of the American squadron
under Commodore Perry, indicates that safety for whaling
was very much an issue to be settled between the two
governments at that time.
Very few westerners seem aware that America forced
Japan to open for the sake of the large numbers of whales
being taken off Japan. The people of Taiji though, are wellaware of this.
Another result of this large concentration of foreign(American, British, Dutch and Russian) whale ships off
Japan was the serious depletion of the whale stocks that
the Japanese in places like Taiji relied upon. Especiallythe right whales, which was the most valuable. The sadtruth of the matter is that foreign whaling, for oil andbaleen, was terribly wasteful, especially compared to thecareful human-food use of the total whale carcass by theJapanese.
The net-whaling industry collapsed, and Taiji was givena terrible additional blow by a disaster which cost one
hundred and eleven whalers’ lives and the loss of theirvaluable boats and equipment (in 1879).
Taiji, which a few decades before had been one of the57

IWC/41/21

most prosperous and admired small coastal towns, now
became desperately poor. Encouraged by the new central
government, many Taiji people left Japan, emigrating to
Hawaii, Canada, the United States and Australia.
With the outbreak of World War II, many Taiji people
returned home just before hostilities started, or were internedand came back afterwards. Many Taiji people (including
the present mayor) were in fact born abroad.
As Japan was opened up to western influences it wasinevitable that the new Norwegian techniques of whaling,with the use of the steam catcher, winch and the Svenn
Foyn whaling harpoon, would be adopted. In 1902 three
Norwegians came to live and whale in Taiji, hunting mainly
for large rorquals. With the new whaling techniques andthe almost untouched populations of large rorquals, overforty whaling stations were opened around the coast ofJapan, and the appetite for whale meat increased
enormously, especially as canning factories could now
preserve great quantities of meat to feed the men fighting
the Russian War.
With this kind of uncontrolled whaling Taiji enjoyedprosperity for a while and their men went off to whale allover Japan.
As, inevitably, the stocks of the great rorquals faltered,many whaling stations closed. Taiji, however, haddeveloped small scale boats which used a harpoon gun
developed by a Taiji man who had learnt gunsmithing in
America before returning to his birthplace. This gun, theMaeda gun, fired either five harpoons (in the early version)or three in a later version, and was in use until quite recently.
The lighter harpoons were effective, especially with pilot
whales, which for centuries had been a staple food of Taiji
people. The lighter-colored meat of baleen whales was
mostly sold in better-paying markets away from Taiji,
although the whalers and associated support industries in
Taiji received gifts of certain parts of these baleen whales.
However, the darker-fleshed pilot whale meat was morecommonly eaten in Taiji.
When Japan began Antarctic whaling, especially after
the end of World War II, Taiji men were the mostexperienced whalers, with a long, largely unbroken historyof whaling experience that had seen constant enforced
adaptation to new situations, methods and prey. In the yearsof the so-called ‘Olympics’ of antarctic whaling there wereabout six-hundred Taiji men employed by the whaling
industry, either in pelagic fleets or in both large-scale andsmall-scale coastal whaling.
Long months of isolation at sea, facing hardships, being
away from families and sweethearts, gave Taiji men a
special character. At sea they had the senpai-kohai (seniorjunior) relationship as well as working alongside fathers,
uncles, cousins, brothers and neighbors to strengthen a senseof pride in their calling and in their ancestry.
Very many of the family names of Taiji are whaling
names, and at the end of the Edo period and beginning of
the Meiji period, these names reflected the whaling

profession of the families... harpooners, watchers, net
makers, sinew processors, blubber boilers and so forth.
Harpooners, captains and chief bosuns were especiallyrespected, even hero-worshipped. When the whaling fleetsdeparted or returned it was to throngs of well wishers, withbands, streamers, and enormous national pride, of which
Taiji men felt they were justly due.
It was the whalers of Japan who provided twenty-five
percent of animal protein for school lunches after the war,
when Japan was desperately short of food. Whale was themost common, nutritious, and usually cheapest, of meats
when I first came to live and study in Tokyo in 1962.
However, as the country became more affluent, people
who in former times had not been used to eating whale,
were easily weaned away from that particular dietary item.
This coincided with a marked decrease in supplies ofAntarctic whale meat.
However, and this cannot be stressed enough, there weremany communities who had been used to eating whale meatfor centuries, especially in areas where the whaling
industries had operated since the Edo period. People in theseparticular areas definitely had a preference for whale foods
and had consequently developed a diversified whale-based
local food culture.
I have lived and worked in Europe, Canada and Africa,and I can emphatically state that Japan has by far a morevaried diet, a more regional diet, a more seasonal diet than
encountered in other places. Throughout Japan you will findstrong regional food preferences, and even food prejudices.
For example, in northern Nagano, in the Japan Alps, there
are country people who love to eat the grubs of theunderground nests of a small wasp, also... at great risk...
the grubs of hornets, then grasshoppers in the rice paddies
close to harvest time, grubs of a beetle found in hardwoods,
and dragonfly larvae. I eat and enjoy them myself. ManyJapanese though, could not even think of eating such things.
In the same area thinly sliced raw horsemeat is also
considered a delicacy, but that is certainly rare in Tokyo.
Many foreigners, and some Japanese, who only haveknowledge of Tokyo or Kyoto or Osaka, will makesweeping generalizations about diet preferences that apply
only to the locality and the limited range of acquaintances
they have. This judgement is incorrect, unfair, andculturally and environmentally unsound. There are Taiji
people who have never eaten snow hare, and Shinshu
people who have never eaten pilot whale, but to say thatJapanese don’t eat hare, or don’t eat whale, is wrong. It
would be a mistake to try to force Shinshu people to eat
boiled pilot whale viscera, or Taiji people to eat wasp
grubs. Eleven years ago when I came from Canada to livein Taiji for a year in order to research a historical novel I
became reacquainted with men I’d met at sea, and soon
made friends with other Taiji whaling men. The risingprejudiced hysteria of foreign anti-whaling movements,
based largely on the false premise of the imminent
extinction of all whales, or the equally false belief that58

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Japanese hunted whales for petfood and lipstick, etc., etc.,
etc., ad nauseum, was not only offensive, but extremely
puzzling to the Taiji people.
As they frequently said at the time, and continue to say
now, they themselves never attack other people for theirfood preferences, so why should foreigners attack them?
Wasn’t the killing of terrified, penned, domestic animals agreater cruelty than the taking of a wild whale at sea, witha harpoon that usually killed instantly?
The Taiji people could look back on a long andhonorable history of taking cetaceans to feed their own
people and their nation, but also on a history where
foreigners have repeatedly meddled, usually for very selfish
and prejudiced reasons. The people of Taiji are a very
courageous, stoic and proud people, and they are being
economically deprived and gravely insulted, especially bya nation that is forcing them to import beef, a food that isbanned by the Buddhist religion, even if it is increasingly
popular since the forceful opening of Japan by the same
foreign country that sought to protect and expand its own
whaling industry at the expense of the Japanese coastal
whale fishery. Some Taiji people remarked too, that theformer president of the particular country was a beefrancher, and that his wife was a Greenpeace sympathizer.
“How would they feel” asked one old Taiji man, who
had been interned during the war, “if we had won and if weand India had made them stop killing cows and had enjoined
them to eat dolphin and pilot whale meat like us?”
There is of course no room in this debate for prejudice,
yet on the western side the prejudices loom so obviously.
Taiji people feel they have a right to go on living from theresources they have at hand.
I would like to offer some words of caution to somepeople who scoff at Taiji and deny whalers’ pride. Whilein London, talking on a television program about these
problems, an Englishman made some derisive remarks
about “boy’s own adventure attitudes”. Taiji whalers havefor centuries risked their lives at sea to feed their people
and maintain their traditions. For example, my friend,
gunner Seko, whom I had the privilege of sailing with in
the Antarctic in 1980 retired after over thirty years ofwhaling last year. His father was a harpooner, as was his
grandfather, and his great-grandfather. The tradition of
whaling is very much alive in Taiji, and if insulted, thiswill eventually offend large numbers of Japanese in otherareas of national life.
The Reaction to the Whaling Moratorium
On January 3, 1989, Japan’s national television network(NHK) carried a two-hour drama about an unemployedwhaler. This was late in the evening, at prime viewing time.
The play reflected very well the anger of many Japanese to
the unfairness of the whaling ban and the refusal of westerncountries to understand that Japan has special reasons forneeding whale-protein. What was alarming however, wasthat while the play reflected quite good knowledge about
the status of minke stocks in the Antarctic, whale protein

use, whaling history and whaling in general, it had a very
jaundiced view about western ethics. For example, in one
part of the play a Japanese Christian minister from Kyushu
argued very volubly that the taking and eating of whales
was against Christian ethics, and against all western
philosophy and feelings.
Well, Greenpeace and other fanatics may be pleased tohear that said, but it isn’t true, and the Bible does not tell us
not to eat whales. Some Japanese phoned in to NHK to saythat they also thought that whaling was barbaric, but they
were much in the minority; after the play, which I discussedwith many people, I detected a very widespread anti-westernreaction.
As I have been outspoken in my defence of Japanesewhaling over the past twelve years, on television, radio andin print, I do get many letters, hundreds in fact, agreeing
with me. In Japan I did receive a letter disagreeing withme, and it was typical of its kind. In Canada I got many
more, including threatening letters.
Taiji town gets a similar reaction from the public atlarge: mostly sympathy and support. The anti-whaling
people write letters saying all Taiji people should die, andsimilar sentiments.
My friend Mr. Ishida, bosun, with thirty-seven years ofexperience at sea relates an incident which happened when
his ship called in at Freemantle. With two foreign scientists
aboard they had been on a long, non-killing whale-sighting
cruise. The harpoon gun was securely lashed and wrappedin canvas. When their ship got into port, they were met bya mob of what he is personally convinced were mostly paid
protesters. One of them climbed the mast and chained
himself up there. Others sprayed the ship with huge
letters: “Whale Killers”. The Japanese whalers do notwant to be violent, they are probably more eventempered than anybody I know, but in the end, to stopthese excitable people from vandalizing their ship,
which was on a research cruise as the foreign scientists
tried to explain, the whalers had to keep them off withfire hoses.
Similarly, anti-whaling protesters have thrown ink on
Japanese delegates, publicly burned the Japanese flag, andrecently, rammed a whaling ship engaged in antarctic
research. They are, in the view of Taiji men (and myself)
nothing less than fanatics and terrorists.
However, despite the barrage of insults andprovocations, I know of no time that the Japanese whalers
have responded violently. They have always been
gentlemen.
Despite long absences at sea, there has been very little
family trouble among whalers. As gunner Kohama Wataru
says:“We could talk with each other, and we knew about
each other. Family violence has become very
common in Japan, but not with us whalers. I have
one daughter, and she has been exposed to and knew
about anti-whaling movements since she was small;59

IWC/41/21

she has grown up with it, but she is still proud ofher father. She will continue to respect her father.
They, the children, know.”That certainly is the case. Taiji children, formerly open
to foreigners because their fathers, uncles and other relatives
spent so much time abroad, now have started to resent
foreigners, especially Americans. When, in February 1989,
we tried to gather some junior high and high-school students
to talk with us, many of them refused, at first believing that
as we were westerners we were anti-whaling people, andtherefore to be disliked and distrusted. The attitudes of many
Taiji children are reflected in the words of a fifteen-year
old boy:“Foreign governments are cowardly. Our foodculture is different, so don’t attack us and treat us
like inferiors. Human populations will increase
and we will have to utilise resources, and weJapanese in Taiji feel that whale and other marine
resources must be properly researched andmanaged. Me, I feel more sorry for broiler
chickens, for they never see the sun and they facecertain death. Whales are free and only a small
percent of them are killed.”
Another boy of the same age, whose father is an
unemployed whaling captain, said the following:“My father is a whaler, but when my younger
brother saw a dolphin kill, or when he saw a whale
landed and flensed, he thought it was really sad. It
is a pity to kill anything, but we must separate
feelings from needs. My father understands that,and he fed us and many, many other Japanese.”I have known Japanese whalers for over twenty-three
years, and have lived in Taiji and visited there many times
over the years. I have sailed aboard whaling vessels in the
North Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Antarctic; I believe
the whalers now trust me. In a period of ten days in Taiji,
specifically devoted to finding out how the people reallyfelt, I was increasingly saddened by the rising frustration,
the bewilderment and the hostility toward the west. To quote
some of the Taiji men:
Unemployed, bosun, 37 years of whaling experience:“So many people connected to whaling have been
affected. Now we don’t have the resources to givehigher education to our children; the moratorium
is cutting off all our hopes.”
Unemployed captain, 27 years of whaling experience:“My daughter now needs to go to university, butwith me unemployed our biggest worry is how tolive.”
Unemployed chief whaling deck hand, 36 years of whaling
experience:“After the age of fifty I can’t find a job. Our standardof living has dropped. I’ve got two children readyfor higher education and I need a job which has agood pension and benefits, but I’ve got no chanceof that now. If whaling is ever resumed, I wonder it

they’ll need me?”
Unemployed harpooner, 34 years of whaling experience:“We need work! Work with benefits and pensions,but how can we get it? We all need this, we can’t
just wait around doing nothing. I’ve got five more
years until I can get a government pension, andthat’s totally inadequate. I’ve got two children, one
in junior high school.”
Unemployed harpooner, 33 years of whaling experience:“I’m angry, and I’m sorry, but I can’t even feel
happy that we’ve got this chance to talk with you.
Our family is almost destroyed. I’ve been whaling
since I was sixteen, that’s all I know. What chance
have I got now? Looking at present-day Japan, I
think none. I’m angry and disappointed with ourgovernment, who can’t even let us whale in our
own two-hundred mile territorial waters. This
involves more than money: it is our job, ourvocation, our life! I’ve got two children, one in
middle school, one in kindergarten.”
Unemployed bosun, 39 years of whaling experience:“There is no other suitable job for me, I can’t
adjust. One hundred percent of the people in Taiji
suffer from this moratorium. I took part in whale
research and talked with scientists from Canada
and England, and they told me that the whale
population is not declining, but increasing, and I
felt relieved about this. So what is happening
now?”
Unemployed second engineer, 10 years whaling experience:“There is no suitable job for us. Tankers and such
have different rules. I feel the same as everybody.”
Unemployed chief engineer, 34 yeas of whaling
experience:“I was eighteen when I started whaling, and now
I’m fifty-three. Whaling was my whole life. Hereis Taiji we have eight-hundred years of whaling
history. Why is that? Because just off Taiji is thepath of the whales, their migration route. Whaling
began as coastal whaling, then it spread to the
Antarctic. When Kyôdô Hogei was formed thegovernment just tried to protect Antarctic whaling,
but companies like Nihon Hogei were notprotected. The government should go back to acoastal whaling base. However, why throw away
this tremendous, long-protected resource ofwhales? We should start again from coastal
whaling, go back along our eight-hundred yearsof history, take our food from offshore Taiji as
our ancestors did, from those whale migrationroutes. There are lots of sperm whales out there,
pilot whales and dolphins too. Look, for just threehundred sperm whales in the quota, why shouldtens of thousands of people suffer? Why? Why
can’t they weigh the value of three-hundred sperm
whales, a resource which is renewing itself even60

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
at a greater rate, with the lives of ten-thousandpeople? As for me, I can’t die in peace if I haven’t
passed on the skills of my ancestors. I have twosons in university, and my family is really
suffering. Really.”
Unemployed harpooner, 34 years whaling experience:
Whaling was our life and we knew no other. Whatelse can we do? I’m too young for a pension and I
haven’t got a job, not even a chance.”
Unemployed radio officer, 27 years of whaling experience:“I can’t get a job, can’t go fishing, and nobody needs
me on land. I have a child in university, and I can’t
pay for the final year. The world tells us that eating
whale is savage, but we don’t criticize their cultural
foods, so don’t criticize ours.”
Unemployed captain, 32 years of whaling experience:“I’ve retired; I’m 62 now, but I feel the same way
as everybody else, and my heart is heavy to see themen having to come off the boats.”
In dozens of coversations with whaling people I heard
even stronger emotions, especially when invited to homes
or out drinking with them in the small Taiji bars (whichbusinesses are also suffereing from lack of custom comparedto the times when the whalers were working).
When whalers were asked could they not take up
fishing, they answered that the waters were already overfished, and if they went fishing they would be infringing
on others livelihoods, and anyway could barely survive fromthe meagre catch. Whalers have very special skills,
developed over years, and they can’t simply switch jobs.
One man, very angry, said:“The Americans said they’d kick us out of their
200-mile zone if we didn’t quit whaling. Well, wequit, and they kicked us out anyway! I can’t
understand, I can only see the result, and that is
simple: American force stopped our livelihood.”
One young dolphin and small-cetacean hunter said thisto me:“In foreign countries there are religious taboos oncertain foods. The Muslims can’t eat pork. The
Hindus can’t eat beef. The Jew’s can’t eat pork,
certain kinds of animals with certain kinds of feet,
all kinds of things. Usually it’s because they
consider the taboo animals unclean. Then you takethe Christians: they say that Jesus Christ is the‘Lamb of God’, and they have a ceremony where
they take bread and wine and say it is the flesh andblood of the ‘Lamb of God’. Why can’t they
understand that to us the whale is not unclean, nottaboo? The whale is a god to us, and we take thegod from the sea to feed ourselves and family. Ifthey try to force me to stop I don’t mind going tojail, I’m going to take whales with my harpoon no
matter what anybody says. I don’t mind dying if I
have to. The Americans and all the rest are ignorantand cruel, and I hate them.”

A very definite concern among several Taiji people isthat restrictions imposed on coastal whaling will result in
an increased take of various species of dolphin and pilot
whales for example, and put too much pressure on thoseother species. The dolphin-hunting group, who callthemselves Isana Kai claim that they have not increased
the hunt. However, there have been large-scale harvests in
the recent past and a lot of Taiji people worry about that.
The dolphin hunters, when they drove in large herds in thepast, would slaughter according to the demand of the market
for a few days, then release the rest of the dolphins; however,they don’t release any now.
As to the charges of cruelty in whaling, I can say thatmost of the thousand or so minke whales that I saw killedin the Antarctic died in less than two minutes, many diedinstantly with a heart shot, those that didn’t were quickly
winched to the bow and dispatched with electric lances.
We asked Captain Isone how long it took to kill minke or
Baird’s beaked whales with the fifty-milimetre gun he useson his small (15-ton) ship. Captain Isone takes very careful
data of all his operations, and reported 35 to 36 per cent of
the whales die instantly with a heart shot. Otherwise it
doesn’t usually take more than five minutes and never longer
than ten for the whale to die. He also uses extra kill shots
and the electric lances.
Many Taiji men feel that slaughter houses are more
cruel because the animals are not free, they are penned andknow they will certainly die.
If five minutes may seem a shocking time to die, adocumentary film on the execution of a young black youth
in the United States, quoted prison officials testifying thatit took twelve minutes for that young man to die in the gaschamber.
A fifty-year old whaling bosun said to me:“In America they are shooting each other all thetime over drugs and such. Well, in our town wenever had drugs, or gangsters, or people shooting
each other. They should look to what is happening
to themselves before criticizing us for taking
whales for food. I think it is just a cover to maketheir people feel better about all that shooting intheir towns, and probably about the bombs andpoisons they dropped on the Vietnamese. Did you
notice that? They started on the anti-whaling
business, and it’s really big business we know,
just after they quit doing all their cruelty in
Vietnam.”
It is not only whalers and their families in Taiji whoare angry about the moratorium. For example, aveterinarian said:“I know very well that farmed creatures, fish too,are polluted with all kinds of stuff, so I want to goon getting whale for the health of my family. It isthe best food for us.”The change from whale meat and organ meats to beef,
pork and other fatty meats is likely contributing variously

61IWC/41/21

to some serious effects on Taiji health now being observed:
higher blood pressures and cholesterol rates, heat disease,depression.
Older Taiji people told us that whale meat is the mostdelicious, and even if you eat a lot of it your stomach will
be fine, it’s so good for the health.
Many Taiji people said that in the past they did not buy
whale meat, it was given to them. I know from experiencethat was the case, because when I lived in Taiji I was
regularly given whale meat and boiled whale intestine andother viscera, and that was my main source of protein forthe year. As in Ayukawa, Taiji people “buy fish, get giftsof whale”. Now of course there is limited whale meatentering the town, and on the shelves of the supermarket it
is mostly pilot whale; people now have to buy it, but theywant to maintain an assured local supply.
A young lady composer said:“The Alaskan efforts to save those whales in theice was a pointless fiasco, just to show off. We eat
all of the whale and that is how we show our respect
for it. Westerners don’t appreciate our religion andcustoms and don’t know how much we love andrespect whales. Even if we are (individually) notdirectly connected to whaling we have a pride inwhaling. We worry that this will all go, and be lostin mere nostalgia. We cannot understand whywhaling must be stopped. How can we teach ourchildren and explain what is going on? We feel aterrible frustration.”An ex-whaler who has taken over his father’s fish shop
said:“You must understand that whaling to us was notjust business, even though the moratorium has
affected every business in this town. The men who
went to the Antarctic had good wages and a lot of
pride. However, meat from pelagic whaling did notcome to the fish shops in Taiji to be sold. Meat
Table 24:

was, however, freely given by the local whalemeat
processers, and whalers got gifts of meat from thecompanies, which they shared.”
The importance of sharing and gifting continues: although
I now live in the mountains of Nagano, I was, until very
recently, frequently sent blocks of frozen whale meat, tailmeat, red (back) meat, ‘bacon’ and blubber. It is only in thelast year that I’ve been buying whale from my local fishmerchant, and he gets meat mostly from small toothed whales
that are entangled in trap nets on the Japan Sea coast.
A local artist and potter said:“Taiji was and is a whaling town. Whaling was
Taiji’s main sales point. If this is gone, however,it’ll just be tourism, and we can’t trust this.
Personally, I was going to build a new house, but
I’ve lost the will to do it. People here are in limbo.”
An interesting point was brought up by the local butcher.
We thought that with a lack of whale meat, his sales musthave gone up. It was not that simple.
“When lots of men were working in the Antarctic,
their wives could afford to buy expensive meats.
Those sales have dropped badly now, but thecheaper, fatty meats are selling instead.”
Conclusion
It is obvious that the stopping of whaling has adversely
affected Taiji in many ways. It is also obvious that this isan outside and unwarranted inteference with the Taiji
culture. What is especially worrisome is that among Taiji
residents especially, but similarly among many otherJapanese, there is a growing resentment that is being
directed, fairly or unfairly, against America; the westernanti-whaling movements, with their extreme prejudices are
creating a noticeable backlash of prejudice in Japan.
Taiji may not make a large contribution to the economyof the nation, but in the overall cultural mosaic of the nation
it is vital and the residents use of local natural resources istheir historic and legal right. The use of some of the locallySupermarket prices for meat and fish, Taiji, February 1989

Dolphin organ meats(cooked)*
Dolphin meat
scrapings (cooked)
Dried/marinatedwhalemeat
Sliced fluke cartilage(sperm whable)
Salted blubber
Cooked blubber(pilot whale)
Minke whale red meat
Red meat(sashimi) frozen

Value of whale meatsales ( ¥)Whale meat price(¥ per 100 grams)

Farm-animal meat(¥ per 100 grams)

Fish/Shellfish(¥ per 100 grams)

23,80378

Chicken/Hamburger 88

Mackerel 78

13,911

78-1186,622

194-198

Chicken 108(white meat deboned)
Chicken 118(dark, deboned)

Tuna 168(average quality)
Squid 178
(good quality)

10,560450

Chicken 148 (filet)

Eel 298

2,366

248

Hamburger 190 (low quality)

Crab 350-495—

600

98,400780

Pork 218(deboned, cutlet)
Beef 550 (frozen)

—

1,680

Beef 600-1,500 (tenderloin)(N.B. January sales data from one supermarket, Taiji; prices from two Taiji supermarkets)
Source: Supermarket store survey, February 1989

62

Yellowtail 450

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
excellent value. Meat from the ventral folds, called ‘bacon’by many Japanese, has blubber, but fat from whales does
not cause health problems.
On my recent visit to Taiji, I spoke with thirty-five Taiji
children of primary school and middle-school age. They
were asked to put up their hands in answer to the following
questions:
Do you like eating whale?
All hands up.
What kind of whale?
Minke... 19 children
Pilot whale... 11 children
Sperm whale... 2 children
Pilot whale organ meat... 20 children
Dolphin... 20 children
Whale sashimi (thinly sliced raw whale)... 31 children
What is your favorite meat, (from among chicken, pork,
beef and whale)?
13 children voted for beef; 22 voted for whale; none
voted for chicken or pork.
All the children said they enjoyed various whale dishes at
festivals, rather like the way we westerners enjoy turkey.
When Taiji was still harvesting baleen whales, children
were given strips of baleen, to which the gum was attached,on which to chew. A British maker of Blackpool ‘rock’, akind of stick candy, said that whale oil was an essential
ingredient to that traditional English seaside treat; so please,
don’t despise the Taiji children’s food choices. To
summarize, whale foods very widely in price according to
species of whale, quality of the meat and its manner ofpreparation.

available whale stocks for food removes a great pressure
from other resources and thereby contributes to sustainableecological balance.
ON THE CLAIM THAT WHALEMEAT IS ONLYSERVED AND EATEN IN EXPENSIVERESTAURANTS
Last week in Taiji I enjoyed a dish of onomi. This is by
far the most expensive whale-meat dish. It is the tendermarbled meat, in this case from a minke whale, from thefew kilos of vestigial muscle in the sides of the ‘tail’ region,near where it flares out into the flukes. This meat is, andalways has been, the ultimate luxury in whale eating, andone that most Taiji folk would enjoy only rarely. Yes, itcertainly can be found on luxury menus. For seven slices,
three to five milimetres thick, with a sauce of grated ginger
and soya, and a side dish of white radish, plus green tea,
the cost was ¥1,500.
As I write this in the Capital Tokyo Hotel, a hotel I use
regularly when I come to Tokyo, I have beside me theirroom service menu. Chicken in a basket is ¥2,800. A verysmall Kobe steak is ¥7,200!
There are many species of whale, and hundreds of whale
dishes. Whale meat is carefully graded. This luxury dish of
tail meat is in many cases the only part of a whale served in
an expensive Tokyo eatery, but to judge whale cuisine onthat alone would be worse than judging the price of best
Canadian back bacon to be a representative price of all partsof pig, or the cost of filet mignon steak as representative of
the price of cow or steer meat.
Before the whaling moratorium, people in Taiji rarely
if ever bought whale meat or organ meats, for they received
them as gifts. The same was true in Ayukawa. A very
common dish in Taiji was boiled pilot whale organ meats,a mixture of stomach, kidney, liver, heart and intestines.
Last week in Taiji it was on sale in the supermarket at ¥78
per hundred grams. In comparison in the same store,
moderately priced beef was ¥400 per hundred grams, andbetter quality beef was ¥1,500 per hundred grams.
For the quality and volume of good protein, even inTokyo speciality restaurants, whale dishes are still far better
value than beef, and moreover, whaling village people knowthat eating whale does not cause the heart and cholesterol
problems that a beef-based diet does.
Apart from the small quantity of marbled tail meat
(onomi), the more abundant red meat from the large musclesof the trunk has no visible fat and very little sinew, and is

Coffee shop menu, Wada, January 1989
(for set meals, includes soup, rice and tea)
¥ 1,000
¥ 850
¥ 850
¥ 800
¥ 750
¥ 700
¥ 700
¥ 700
¥ 300

Fried whale meat
Curried beef
Curried seafood
Deep-fried pork
Hamburger
Chicken dishDeep-friend chicken
Sauteed beef
Tea or coffee

Source: Field notes, Wada, January 31, 1989

Appendix IV

FUND RAISING FOR SCIENTIFICRESEARCHof the next three meetings progressively larger number ofparticipants attended.
Before the June 30 meeting a total of ¥31.5 million had
been raised to support research. By February 1989 donations
had been received from more than 2,000 individuals andBetween April 26 and June 30, 1988 five rallies were
held to raise funds for Antarctic research activities. The
first two meetings attracted about 140 people, but at each63IWC/41/21

than ¥332 million have been provided as a subsidy by theGovernment of Japan to the research undertaking in the
Antarctic Ocean, but this is simply not enough to assure
the continuation of research in the coming years.
Therefore, the fund raising campaign by this committee
has started with the first assembly held at the Royal Hotel,
Osaka on 26th May, 1988, followed by similar assemblies
in Fukuoka (New Ohtani Hotel) on 13th June, andculminating on 30th June, 1988 in the assembly at Aoi
Kaikan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, where more than 300 people
attended. The committee has set the target amount at ¥200
to 300 million to contribute to the Institute of Cetacean
Research which is the body responsible for the Antarctic
Research Program.
The committee holds a strong opinion in connection
with protecting the food culture of the Japanese people,
and the whale meat diet in particular. It argues strongly
against the ethnocentric western coercion to change
Japanese eating habits. The members regard whale meatas the symbol of the Japanese traditional diet.

groups, who have so far collected ¥65 million in support ofresearch activities in the Antarctic.
What follows is an announcement concerning theorganization provided as general information to the public.

GEIRUI CHOSA SUISHIN BOKIN BOSHU ZIN-KAI(Fund Raising Organization to Support Scientific
Research)
On 26th April, 1988, a group of artists, actors, writersand entertainers met to establish a Committee to Support
Scientific Research in the Antarctic.
The committee is headed by Mr. Shotaro Akiyama,
an internationally known art photographer, followed by
Mr. Takashi Atouda, Prize-winning novelist, and Mr.
Fumio Watanabe, a veteran actor.
Supporting this cause are such prominent individuals
as Professor Takeo Koizumi, Tokyo Agricultural
University, Professor Tadae Takubo, Kyorin Medical
University, Ms. Chizuko Togaeri, an influential essayist
and Kikuzo Hayashiya, famous Rakugo entertainer. More

Appendix V

SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF A ZERO CATCH LIMIT ON
DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS AND RELATED ACTIVITIES IN HOKKAIDO
AND MIYAGI PREFECTURES, JAPANTheodore C. Bestor
Department of Anthropology
Columbia University
February 18, 1989
This background report is for the use of the Institute of Cetacean Research in preparation ofmaterials for submission to the International Whaling Commission’s Ad Hoc Working Group on
Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit. It may not be circulated, cited, or quoted forany other purpose without the written permission of the author.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

whaling communities;— on the viability of key institutions in the generalmaritime economy of Ayukawa, such as the
Maritime Wholesale Market and the Fisheries
Cooperative Association;— on other economic foundations of community life,
such as tourism; and,— on patterns of consumption influenced by thestrongly held dietary preferences of local
consumers.
The impact of the zero-catch limit is particularly
evident in Ayukawa, where the impact is intensified by
the concentration of whaling activities, processing anddistribution, consumption, and whale-related social andritual activity all largely centered on a single small, isolated
community. In Hokkaido, where these constellations ofactivities are more geographically dispersed, the impact
is not so immediately evident, though it is clearly as severe
in its effect on the ‘core whaling community’ (Iwasaki1988).

Anthropological field research on the lives of people
involved in small-type coastal whaling (henceforth
STCW), the distribution of whale meat, and related
activities was undertaken in Hokkaido and Miyagi
Prefectures, Japan, during the Spring and Fall of 1988,
the first year in which the taking of minke whales was
totally banned.
The imposition of the zero catch limit has had impact
on communities in Hokkaido (especially Abashiri) andMiyagi Prefecture (especially Ayukawa) in many direct
ways:— on employment in enterprises involved in whaling
production, processing, and distribution, and henceon the life of families whose livelihood had
depended on this employment;— on the viability of family enterprises that in somecases are several generations old;
— on customary social relations, patterns ofreciprocal gifting, and other social rituals within64

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Appendix VI

January 9, 1989
Mr. Ikeda, Ikuo
Director
Institute of Cetacean Research
A Petition for whale meat allocation
Dear Mr. Ikeda:
The increase of food-allergic is becoming a current
social issue. As I wrote in my books, Revolving Diet andUnderstand Allergy: Questions and Answers, whale meat,
as well as rabbit meat, frog meat and venison is an importantsource of protein for allergic infants and children, in contrast
to egg, beef, chicken, milk, pork and soy bean that are often
the cause of their allergy.
Presently, there are about 20 parents’ organizations
all over Japan actively involved with their physicians infood-treatment programs for these patients (who include
pregnant women). For those parents of food-allergic
patients, whale meat is a safe protein resource for theirchildren. This is the reason why we are writing to ask if
you could regularly allocate to us this safe protein for thesepatients. We do realize that whaling in Japan isexperiencing difficulties due to international anti-whaling
actions.
However, for this reason I have mentioned in this letter,
please consider a special allocation of minke whale meatfrom antarctic research for these patients.
We are looking forward to hearing from you soon. Mr.
Nakata will write to you again about the quality and quantityof minke whale.

such reactions is to take up a ‘revolving diet’ which consistsof a different protein-source intake every day selected fromhare, deer, frog, and kangaroo meat as well as fishes. The‘revolving diet’ should be arranged so as to provide thepatients a different protein intake every day. Amongst the
non-allergy-inducing animal proteins, whale meat has beentested and proved to be one of the most desirable for such
infantile-allergy cases.
The committee has written a letter to petition theInstitute of Cetacean Research to give high priority in its
distribution of the minke whale meat yielded from theAntarctic research operations to the group of allergic infants
and children.
Note: There are more than 15 groups of parents havingsuch allergic children in Japan.
(See the following list.)

PARENTS’ GROUPS PETITIONING FOR
SUPPLY OF ANTARCTIC MINKE WHALE
Kobayashi Child Care Groups (Kobayashi Aiiku
Kenkyukai), Maebashi 371
Friends Group, Ichikawa Citizen’s Clinic (Tomo NoKai), Ichikawa 272
Chiba Kensei Hospital Child Care Division (Chiba
Kensei Byoin Shouni-ka), Chiba 281
Killifish Group (Medaka No Kai), Tachikawa 190
Non-Allergenic Food Group (Tabemono Allergy
Jokyoshoku No Kai), Matsumoto 390
Nagano Central Pediatric Hospital (Nagano Chuo Byôin),Nakamo 380
Koyou Co-operative Pediatric Hospital (Koyou Seikyo
Byôin), Fukui 910
Allergy Study Group (Allergy Wo Kangaeru Kai),
Nagoya 458
Green Leaf Group (Wakaba No Kai), Inazawa 492.
Ninwa Pediatric Patients Clinic (Ninwa Shinryojo
Shouni-ka Kanjyakai), Kyoto 602
Allergic Children’s Parents Group (Allergy No Ko Wo
Motsu Oya No Kai), Hiroshima 733
Dandelion Group of Allergy Patients (Allergy Kanjyai
Tanpopo No Kai), Takamatsu 760
Allergic Children’s Parents Group (Allergy Ji Wo Motsu
Oya No Kai), Miayazaki 880
North Pinokio Group (Kita No Pinokio Kai), Sapporo
006
Allergic Childrens Parents Group (Allergy No Ko Wo
Motsu Oya No Kai), Ichikawa 272

Thank you.
Matsunobu, Masayuki
Food Allergy Consultation Committee

DISTRIBUTION OF MINKE WHALE MEATFROM RESEARCH OPERATIONS: FOOD
ALLERGY CONSULTATION COMMITTEE
Dr. Masayuki Matsunobu
Tokyo Medical College Hospital(Tokyo Ika Daigaku Byôin)
The committee gives consultation to the rearing of
infants who are allergic to ordinarily available animal
protein, particularly in the cases where the infants sufferdermatitis atopie. Those infants react severely to eggs,
chicken, milk, beef, and soybeans. The strategy to alleviate

65IWC/41/21

LOCATION OF PARENT GROUPS INVOLVED IN CHILD-ALLERGY TREATMENT PROGRAMS

Sea of Okhotsk

HOKKAIDO
SapporoSea of Japan

HONSHU
NaganoFukui

Hiroshima

Kyoto

MaebashiMatsumoto

NagoyaInazawa

Takamatsu

SHIKOKU
KYUSHU

Miyazaki

66

Tachikawa

Ichikawa
Chiba

Pacific OceanReport to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit
Appendix VII

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS AT NARA PREFECTURE:
CLASS DEBATES ON WHALINGClassroom debates on whaling were held by fifth grade pupils under the guidance of their teacher, Mr.
Iwai Kunio at an elementary school attached to Nara Womenís University. The first debate was held in
September 21, 1988 for two hours devoted to ‘business (social) study’. The class split into half; one
supported whaling and the other supported anti-whaling. Following a discussion, a third group wasformed that held a position between the first two groups. Numbers of pupils and the opinions expressedby each group are as follows:

Anti-Whaling Group (10 pupils)
If you allow (whalers) to harvest whales, it is apparent
that they will over exploit whales and this will lead toextinction.
The reason for a ban of whaling is because we
exploited whale resources in the past and whales are now
in danger of extinction, so now we should protect whales.
We should protect nature and conserve natural
resources.
We are living creatures of this earth and so is thewhale.
We can live without harvesting whale.
We can eat something other than whale.
Whalers should look for other jobs.
We should utilize fish resources rather than whale.
I feel sorry for the whales that are killed.
People say that they will not over-exploit whales;
however, they are harvesting whales, and there is no
distinction between exploitation and harvest.
I feel sorry for whales considering the practices offoreign countries where whales were thrown away after
only the oil had been extracted.
Whaling Support Group (6 pupils)
There is no way that whales will become extinct.
There is no way that whales would become extinct
for the harpooners assert this.
We still have whales and their populations will grow.
Whaling is a part of Japanese culture and tradition sothat we should continue whaling.
Middle Group: Intermediate position
We can take some whales without over-exploiting
them to the point of extinction.
We should listen to whalers since they have been
harvesting and dealing with whales and know about whales
best (and they say we still have enough whales).
We should just harvest adult whales and not the youngwhales.
We should allow whale hunting as a seasonal activity.
We should just harvest males.
We should not harvest them during the breeding
season.
We should farm whales.
Some people want to eat whale meat.
Whalers would lose their jobs.
I feel sorry for harpooners.

Whalers cannot find new jobs so easily.
Whalers cannot take other fishing jobs because waysof harvesting are quite different.
Coastal whaling should continue.
We should import whale meat from some othercountries.
One week later, on September 28, the students held afurther discussion. On this occasion also, the pupils could
not reach a consensus. This time the anti-whaling groupincreased to 19 pupils, and the whaling support groupincreased to 18 pupils. For about two hours both groups
argued rationally for their point of view, yet could not settle
the issue. Finally, the teacher suggested to the students thateach group should write a letter to Mr. Kohama, a wellknown harpooner from Taiji.
On October 8th, Mr. Kohama’s reply arrived. His letter
was full of information that they were not aware of. The
whaling issue had moved from science-based conservation
to international politics. The teacher found difficulty making
his pupils understand these complicated matters, anddecided to guide them by way of a better understanding of
the whale itself. He also suggested they study the biologyof whales, how to utilize whale products and cook whale
dishes, in addition to studying the organization of theInternational Whaling Commission.
Soon after the students read Mr. Kohama’s letter,
many left the anti-whaling group and joined the whaling
support group. The discussion on October 21 went asfollows:
Anti-Whaling Group (5 pupils)
Even if we harvest a small number of whales, we are
harvesting them (and that is not good).
Whale resources are so depleted that we can only
harvest three species now.
If we continue to harvest whales, Americans will kickus out from their 200-mile zone.
We should protect whale life that is a part of nature.
Some other countries, not only Japan, are also
harvesting whales so that their populations will become
depleted.
Cows and pigs will not become depleted since we arefarming them.
Whaling Support Group (32 pupils)
We no longer harvest endangered species.
We will be allowed to only harvest small numbers that67

IWC/41/21

will not upset the entire population.
The minke whale population is as many as 420,000.
We should keep our tradition, skill and history ofwhaling.
It is hard for whalers to find new jobs.
Whaling is manly work.
If we ban whaling, many people would lose their jobs
and be in difficulties.
Another discussion meeting was held on November 2,
and pupils criticized the U.S. (the leading anti-whaling
country) and discussed how whaling is related to humanrights, conservation, international politics, the economy andtrade, and war and peace. The last class discussion was held
on November 9. On that day the class studied small coastal
whaling in Japan and whale festivals held all over Japan.
After the students had studies the material, all anti-whaling
group members had become persuaded to join the whaling
support group. On this occasion, the class reached aconsensus to support whaling under certain conditions,
namely (1) we should only harvest whales whose population
is abundant and not in danger of becoming extinct; (2) weshould conduct international research on whales as a marine
resource, and the scientific committee of IWC shouldsupervise the level of harvest.
In order to reach consensus, two points were crucial:
1. Students understood from Mr. Kohama’s letter thatJapan only harvests some of the 75 whale species; andthe claims of the U.S. and other anti-whaling groups
are unreasonable. In addition, the students understoodthe importance of whaling traditions and culture andbelieve these should be maintained.
2. Students came to understand how the Japanese respected
whales, rather than just killing them, through studying
whale festivals. They recognized that whalers were people
who really cared for whales. Sometimes, whales were
given posthumous names and treated as gods.

Appendix VIIIESSAYS WRITTEN BY TAIJI SCHOOL STUDENTS (TRANSLATION)
The regrettable whaling ban
Our town, Taiji, has been catching whales for over
400 years. Most Taiji people worked in some kind ofwhale-related business.
In the olden times whales were our basic, everyday
staple food, and especially during the time of food crisis
after World War II whale meat stilled our hunger andwas the important source of protein. However, whaling
ended about a year ago because of pressure fromenvironmental groups such as Greenpeace. Antiwhaling countries like the U.S. say “We should pity
the whales” to which Japan replies “Don’t you take pity
on your cows?” to which they answer “Cows are O.K.
because we raise them for food.” I just can’t understandor accept their logic: it is acceptable to kill animals
you raise but its not good to kill wild animals, which
we should pity. I believe we should take pity on every
animal, whether domestic or wild.
Every country has its own food culture, and it iswrong to criticize other people’s dietary habits that you
don’t share.
Some people speak about declining stocks; I believe
it will be perfectly alright to harvest about one percent of
the entire stock as determined by scientific research. For
example, I heard that minke whales in the Antarctic
number at least 400,000; one percent of that number is4000. I believe that a harvest that size won’t deplete thewhale stock and the whaling businesses could support
themselves.
I heard that the U.S. had been taking large numbers ofwhales in the past. But their purpose was only to get oil,
not meat for food. They stopped whaling because they
discovered kerosene as a substitute. The U.S. whalers only
took the oil from the whales and threw away the rest of

the animal. On the other hand, Japan makes use of
everything: whale oil, meat, teeth, bones and internalorgans. If you consider that, we are not using it as a luxury
in the way Americans did. We lived with whales. I believethat if these anti-whaling countries were whaling countries
like Japan, they would better understand our position
I feel such regret that we had to stop whaling, eventhough there are plenty of whale resources, because ofpressure form the anti-whaling countries.
(6th grade student’s essay, Taiji)
Whaling town, Taiji
I never expected that whaling would stop. I heard frommy teacher that nothing can be thrown away from a whale.
We can eat the meat and use its skin — we can use
everything and nothing is thrown away. If we can’t hunt
any whales that will be the end of “whaling town Taiji”.
We can’t be proud of Taiji as a whaling town any longer.
My friend says “The Americans are unreasonable, ifthey were they wouldn’t kill their cows...” I agree with myfriend.
If we can’t get any whales I feel sorry for people who
like to eat whale meat. And the whalers are in trouble. It isselfish (of Americans). I hope that they will talk to eachother about it.
That’s so: they should have a conference once more
and should discuss the issue. If they do, they may tell us its
alright to hunt whales. I don’t understand why theAmericans decided that we can’t hunt whales since they
are killing cows. We are all the same.
Now, we have many tourists coming to this town.
However, if we can’t get any whales, their numbers would
decline. I want to make a complaint about this. I want mytown Taiji to be “whaling town Taiji”.
(4th grade students essay, Taiji).
68

Report to the Working Group on Socio-economic Implications of a Zero Catch Limit

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Taiji and whaling
My town, Taiji has 800 years of whaling history. My
town has a tradition and even now about half of the entire
Taiji population have fishing-related work. Among these,
about one-third are whalers. My father is one of them; he isa harpooner.
However, it is unfortunate that our 800-year whaling
tradition would come to an end next year, due to a decisionat the IWC to ban commercial whaling.... Why can’t wetake whales? It is reasonable that humans eat animals; thisis the way it is. The U.S. on the other hand has childish
opinions, such as “whales are the largest mammals so weshouldn’t eat them”. If we follow this logic there is acontradiction because they eat mammals too; their favourite
meats are beef and mutton — don’t they feel pity for cows
and sheep? These are mammals like whales.
It is not possible to cause whales to become extinct if
we continue to hunt them properly; the populations are notgradually declining.
In the mid-19th century, the Americans hunted whales,
but that was different from Japanese whaling, as theAmericans only needed the oil and they threw away themeat. The Americans took more than 10,000 whales eachyear, whereas the Japanese, who made full use of every
whale, hunted about 200 whales each year.
There is no excuse for the Americans to feel pity forwhales now; in the past they were terribly reckless hunters.
We Japanese are human too; we have sympathy for whales.
However, I believe it is wrong to not hunt whales becauseof this sympathy. Humans have to kill and eat animals to
live; this is the way it is, and without killing them no-one
can survive.
(Excerpt from junior high school student’s essay, Taiji)
My father’s job
My fathers job is harpooner. The other day he left home
to go to work for six months; I really miss him, no-one canreplace him.... Recently my father told me about his work,
and whenever I listen to him I understand more, and realize
his work is very responsible. (Though) each whaler has a
responsibility, my father’s work is the most responsible
because there is only one harpooner on each ship... and theentire operation would go wrong if he was to get sick. The
position of harpooner is not the kind of work anyone cando. Because of these factors, my father would be under
tremendous pressure (to perform his job well).
It was my father’s dream to become a harpooner; now
his dream has come true and he is a respected harpooner. I
believe he has done so by much effort and has gone throughhard times. I am proud of my father, who is such a hardworking person.
I am not sure about my own future. But if somethingcomes to my mind that I want to achieve, I want my dreams
to come true as they did for my father even though it requires
patience and hard work.
(Junior high school student’s, Taiji)

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49pp

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